Sermon - Pentecost 3 - Matthew 10:21-33

Sometimes the Gospel doesn’t sound exactly like good news.  “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.”  This is the gospel of the Lord!  Thanks be to God?

As I mentioned last week, these two readings go together as Jesus is preparing his disciples to go out and preach.  He gives them a message, he gives them authority, and he sends them out in pairs to labor in the harvest, which he promises is plentiful.  But in this following reading, he also warns them about the opposition they are sure to face.  And the warning has broader application.  It is first for the apostles, but yes, it is also for all Christians. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ has some tough words for us this morning.  Some stark reality.  A bit of a “red pill” to use a neologism.  Being a Christian means persecution.  It means suffering.  It means the hatred of the world will be directed at you.  He doesn’t sugar coat it.  And neither should we.

A servant is no greater than his master.  If they call him the Father of lies, what will they call you? If they hate and revile and mistreat and even crucify him, don’t think they won’t do the same to you. 

But he also has some strong words of comfort and encouragement to help this medicine go down.  Fear not, Christian!  For the persecution that is sure to come - isn’t the end of the story…

I ran across a website that describes and tracks the persecution of Christians throughout the world, and they shared these typical scenarios:

A woman in India watches as her sister is dragged off by Hindu nationalists. She doesn’t know if her sister is alive or dead.

A man in a North Korean prison camp is shaken awake after being beaten unconscious; the beatings begin again.

A woman in Nigeria runs for her life. She has escaped from Boko Haram, who kidnapped her. She is pregnant, and when she returns home, her community will reject her and her baby.

A group of children are laughing and talking as they come down to their church’s sanctuary after eating together. Instantly, many of them are killed by a bomb blast. It’s Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.

According to the same website, in the last year:

• Over 260 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution
• 2,983 Christians killed for their faith
• 9,488 churches and other Christian buildings attacked.
• 3,711 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned

(https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/)

We see these things happening (if we are willing to look), and it merely confirms what Jesus teachers here.  And that we don’t, at least not yet, see things like this in our own “land of the free and home of the brave” – well, the relative peace and calm we Christians in America have enjoyed is somewhat of an exception.  No Christian I know has the ability to predict the future, there are certainly some ominous signs for us lately. Are your eyebrows raised yet?

The public square becomes ever more hostile to a Scriptural worldview.  The laws of our land seem to ensconce ever more immorality.  Many Christians are afraid to speak up for fear of losing face, losing a job, or even being sued. You may even be afraid to be known as a Christian, to hold positions that the Bible clearly teaches, or even to mention the name of Jesus in certain circles or particular places.

It’s not just the public square, however, it can even divide the family.  Jesus says “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death”

So what do we do?  Retreat?  Run off to a cave like Elijah?  Crawl into a hole and die? No, Jesus tells us what to do.  And in his command, there is also a message of hope for the persecuted Christian.  He says “fear not”.

Fear not.  It is the most common command in all of Scripture.  Fear not.  Spoken by many an angel, and here, in this reading, on the lips of our Lord 3 times:  fear not.  Do not fear the world.  Do not fear the persecution.  Do not fear those who are out to get you.  The most they can do is destroy the body.  It would be better to fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell – that’s God.  The God who wants not only our fear, but also our love and trust.

Fear not – for he cares even for the sparrow.  And if the life of a sparrow matters to God, then certainly also the least and frailest among us matter.  And certainly also those who suffer for righteousness’ sake matter.  If he has count of even the hairs on your head, then you think he won’t notice your suffering?  The all-knowing and all-powerful God is your Father, and he means you good.  You think he won’t sustain you, be with you, and carry you through?  He will.

And what’s the worst that can happen to you?  Not that they kill you – for he will raise you up.  Not that they can humiliate you, for he will vindicate you.  Take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife.  Let these all be gone, the kingdom ours remaineth.

Confess Christ.  Confess him before men, and he will confess you before the Father.  We confess Christ when we believe in him – believe in your heart and confess with your lips in Christ crucified for sinners.

Trusting Christ crucified is the precise antidote for fear.  If Christ is not your savior, if his blood is not shed for you, if your sins are not forgiven, if Christ has not been raised… well then you have every good reason to fear, both now and hereafter.  But Christ has been raised.  His blood was shed.  His life was given in your place.  And your sins are forgiven.  You have no reason to fear.  So fear not.  Fear not what God will do to you – for you are in Christ.  And fear not what man can do to you – for even if you die, yet shall you live!

The fact that Jesus warns his disciples of persecution is really a comfort.  Imagine if he didn’t warn us.  Imagine if he made it seem like Christianity would always be a walk in the park – your best life now – the magic wand that makes all your troubles go bye-bye.  And then trouble comes.  You’d think him a liar. You’d wonder whether God cared, or had any power to save at all.

But that he warns you ahead of time – is a comfort.  That he knows you will meet resistance, and suffer, and maybe even die at the hands of wicked men – means you can trust him at his word, and have no fear.

This is why Jesus can say blessed are you when they persecute you.  This is how Paul can explain that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope, and hope does not put us to shame.  This is why faith clings to Christ, and even grows, in the midst of tribulations in this world.  Because faith trusts in Christ, and Christ has promised us a future beyond the suffering and persecution, a hope even beyond the grave.

Being a Christian is both easy and hard.  It’s easy in the sense that we have nothing to do, but believe, and we are saved.  All the heavy-lifting is done by Jesus at the cross.  It’s as easy for us as receiving a gift.  But it’s also hard, in that persecutions are sure to come.  It’s hard as we struggle against the wicked world, and of course also the devil and our own sinful flesh.  It’s hard in that there is suffering, there are crosses, and this side of heaven, we have to be ready for it all.

But fear not.  For Christ is with you, even if and when you are persecuted.  Fear not, for his word is always and ever true.  Fear not, for he has redeemed you, he has called you by name, you are his.  Fear not, little flock, but rather trust the Good Shepherd, who will get you out of this valley of the shadow of death and bring you to his good pastures.  Persecution is temporary but with Christ, the blessings are eternal.

Thanks be to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sermon - Second Sunday after Pentecost - Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-20)

And so we are back to green.  Green paraments, green stoles.  The Season of Pentecost, or what we call the “regular time” of the church.  The Festival half of the church year is concluded, after we followed the life of Christ from Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week and Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.  Now we enter the long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost – the time of the church.

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Today we have the first of a two-part reading from Matthew’s Gospel.  The over-arching topic is something like, “Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles”.  Now, next week we will hear about the suffering they can expect when they go.  But here, for starters, we have some preliminary matters.

First, Jesus comments about the harvest and the workers.

Second, He gives the Twelve authority.  And Matthew gives us their names.

Third, He sends them out with their message and marching orders.

Let’s consider each of these in turn, as we apply the reading also to our common life in the church today.

“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”  Jesus speaks here in a word picture about the kingdom.  He had been going about his business, preaching in various places throughout the cities and villages.  And it became clear that more preachers would be needed for the task.  The ‘harvest’, as it were, being the hearers and recipients of the Gospel of the kingdom – and the ‘laborers’, those who tended to the harvest. 

We should understand this aphoristic saying of Jesus with broad application.  The harvest is, now, as it was then, as it always is – plentiful.  There are always people who need to hear the message of Jesus.  There are always people who will receive the message of Jesus.  Keying in on the grand scriptural metaphor of agriculture – the seed of the Gospel is planted and preached – bringing forth a harvest of faith by God’s grace.  Some plant, some water, some harvest.  God always gives the growth.  We preachers are just blessed to work our own little corner of the field, and pray we do it faithfully.

That the harvest is plentiful is good news for the church, isn’t it?  We may look out and think we see otherwise.  It’s easy to be doom and gloom in today’s world, as churches shrink and orthodox Christianity is marginalized in the public square.  It looks, to us, less like a harvest and more like a blight.  Stubbly fields that have been picked clean by crows and bleached by the heat of the day.  We may think the church is doomed.  We may predict disaster.  We may feel like Elijah, “I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me too.”

But don’t dismiss these words of Jesus.  The harvest IS plentiful.  Things just aren’t always as they seem.  The spiritual reality isn’t always what we perceive it to be.  Jesus’ words stand true, even when it appears otherwise.

So repent of any discouragement and trust that the God who establishes his church and builds his church will also grow and keep his church as he sees fit, and that according to his promise, the harvest is plentiful.  People need to hear the Gospel, and when it is preached, the word doesn’t return void.  Some falls on good soil, and produces that harvest of a hundred-fold.

And remember, that you are a part of that harvest!  Though you were dead in your sins, the Spirit has made you alive in Christ.  So now where there was no life, now there is a harvest.  As you have come to faith by the word.  As you have been baptized and discipled. 

The problem is not the lack of harvest but the lack of workers, laborers, and preachers.  But even for that problem Jesus has a solution:  pray.  Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the fields.  And we know he answers.

If you listen closely to the prayer of the church each week, we do a pretty good job of following this command of Jesus.  We pray for laborers.  We pray that God would provide the church with faithful pastors and church workers.  We also act in accord with this prayer, as we support church workers and seminary students.  Mark Peters, the man we are now supporting at seminary, and his family will be here again this summer – and I know you will be generous with him as you always are.  This won’t benefit us directly, but it is part of our support for the church at large, and our response to Jesus’ teaching here.  In the same way we support missionaries, like Phillip Magness, who teaches Lutheran church music and worship in Africa.  He’ll be here in less than a month.

Second, Jesus gives the twelve authority.  Matthew specifically mentions the authority Jesus gives over unclean spirits, and also to heal.  These were important confimations of the message they would preach, signs that they were sent by the true Messiah, and an outward expression of the breaking of the devil’s kingdom that the Gospel brings.  It amazed the disciples, themselves, that even the demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name!  But Jesus answers with a sort of “you aint seen nothin’ yet”.  Don’t rejoice in this, that is, the outward miracles – but that your names are written in heaven.  Rejoice, rather, in salvation itself.

It’s true that at this point Jesus was sending his disciples only to the lost sheep of Israel.  But soon he would expand that commission and send them to make disciples of all nations.  So does he establish the Church and also the office of the Holy Ministry.  Those apostles would plant churches and appoint pastors far and wide.  The kingdom would expand and grow.  The harvest would grow and the gospel would spread, throughout years, decades, and centuries.

Today, the preachers of the Gospel are not promised the same kind of apostolic power to exorcise demons and miraculously heal.  But we have inherited from the apostles and those that came after them - the message of the Gospel, and the salvation of Christ crucified.  And that is enough.  It is enough to amaze us, and give us cause for rejoicing.  That the Son of God became man for you, fulfilled the law for you, and offered himself on the cross for you – to save you from sin and death and devil.  This is the great good news that Christ has given to the church to hear, and proclaim, and by it, to be saved.

Now, you might say, well, is this all about pastors?  Is this all about preaching?  Where’s my place in the field? What’s my labor toward the harvest?

For all of us, it is first of all to believe.  To receive the message of Jesus preached to us.  To repent of our sins and believe in the Gospel.  To be the harvest, to grow, and bear fruit.

Second, to labor in the harvest is to support the preaching of this gospel.  Not all are to be preachers, just as not all are apostles.  But all have received the message with joy and desire others to receive the same blessing.  And so we pray for preachers, that they would be sent, that they would be faithful, and for the success of the proclamation.  We earnestly ask that the Lord would move sinners to repentance and faith in Christ as he has so done for us.  And we do what we can to bring other sinners to hear this good news, like one beggar telling another where to find the free bread.

Third, we love our neighbor.  We can say all the right things but if we have no love it won’t amount to much.  Jesus says they will know where are his disciples by our love.  And so inasmuch as each Christian loves his neighbor, he gives a powerful witness silent that supports any words of witness he may have occasion to offer.  Why are you being so kind to me?  How is it, that you can you forgive me?  Well, friend, let me tell you…  Well, friend, let me invite you to my church…

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.  The harvest is plentiful.  Thanks be to God.  What a joy to be a part of that harvest, by the blood of Christ.  But the workers are few.  So let us heed Jesus’ words, and pray for more laborers to be sent into that harvest.  And let our actions match our words, let our love and support for the Gospel rise to the occasions he sets before us.  For in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is at hand, with blessings as only he can provide.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Sermon - Matthew 28:16-20

"Understanding or Confessing?"

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity.  It is Holy Trinity Sunday.  That one Sunday each year in which we highlight the mystery of the divine nature – that God is three and God is one.  In a few moments we will confess the Athanasian Creed, which as a child, seemed to me to last for an eternity, but now as an adult I cherish more every year.

And I call it a mystery for good reason.  The scriptural doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one the Christian church has been pondering, confessing, and sometimes even fighting about, since the very beginning.  And while the Old Testament believers certainly confessed the oneness of God, it cannot be said that the three-ness is something the New Testament invented.  Rather, it is only with the appearance of Jesus Christ, and the light shed by the New Testament writers, that we see the distinction of three co-equal persons of the godhead so clearly. 

Think about it.  God the Father, of course, is assumed in the Old Testament.  His names and works are replete and evident.  But the Spirit is also there, even from the very beginning, hovering over the face of the waters, as we read in Genesis 1.  Furthermore, that God appears and makes himself manifest throughout the ages in the burning bush, in the pillar of fire, and in the many “angel of the Lord” instances – is at least a hint that something strange is going on.  No one has ever seen God, and yet, in these instances, it appears that in a way, people do.

And then the New Testament, especially John’s Gospel, make it clear that Jesus, the Second Person of this Holy Trinity, is the Living Word of God present from the very beginning, and that by him all things were made.  That Word, which became manifest in the incarnation of Christ, that God made flesh – and we have seen his glory.

Now, already, we’ve been unpacking and setting forth just a sliver of what the Scriptures teach about this grand topic, and perhaps already it’s raised some questions or tensions in your mind.  How can God be three and one at the same time?  What exactly is the relationship between God the Father and the Son?  And why is this all so important anyway that we spend a whole Sunday on it every year?

But let me raise for you one of the very real dangers as we approach this doctrine.  And that is this, the danger of understanding.  Or, better yet, thinking we can, or we might, or we somehow should understand God.

Human reason really is a wonderful gift and blessing, which God has bestowed upon us and which he would have us use to his glory and the benefit of our neighbor.  But like all good gifts of God, our sinful nature uses and abuses it.  You might even say that human reason, influenced by the Devil, had a hand in the very first sin.  When Eve looked at the fruit, reasoned that it was good for food and also for wisdom, reasoned that it would make her like God, knowing good from evil…. She drew the very logical conclusion that it was worth a try.  She reached a satanic course of action by elevating her own thoughts above the very word of God. 

And so do we.  Did God really say?  Did God really say he was one?  Does God really say he is three?  Does he really say that Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus and the Father are one?  Does the Spirit really receive divine honor and worship and do divine works?  Does the Bible really put these three on equal footing?  How do we understand the nature of the Divine, the mechanics of the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity?

It's not wrong to ask questions.  But we must keep our reason in check.  It’s only natural to wonder at the how and the why.  But we must maintain a humility that recognizes both the finite limitations of our place as creatures, and also the corruption of our reason due to sin.  Or to put it another way, Scripture informs our reason, not the other way around.

To think that we can understand and discern the mysteries of God’s nature is really the height of arrogance.  But it is an arrogance that is not far from the sinful mind of man.  How many times have you ever heard someone say, “Well, I could never worship a god who does thus and so….”  Or, “That’s not how my God would act”?  We try to subject God to our “if… then… “ syllogisms as if we are the master logician and the Almighty is confined to a seat in our classroom.  Is there any more foolish way to put yourself above God, in the place of God, than to think you can take him apart and put him back together again?  Who’s the creator here, anyway?

And another species of this arrogance is our tendencies toward works righteousness.  To think that we know better also about our own salvation.  To dismiss the work of Christ, the atoning sacrifice of the cross, and to substitute instead our own meager and miserable merits.  “Thanks, Jesus, you got us started, but we’ll finish the job ourselves”.  “You gave us a head start, now we have to finish the race.  You set the table, but it’s up to us to please God with our holy living and impressive piety.”  What could ever be more wrong?

And so, the repentance here is to lean not on your own understanding, but to trust God to be God.  Don’t think you can know God on your own, but receive with thanksgiving that which he reveals to you about himself, Father, Son, and Spirit.  Humble your brain.  But a bit and bridle on your own thinking, and be subject to the Word of God in all things.  Repent of your own ways, receive and believe the truth which God bestows.

Or to put it more simply, don’t understand, but confess.  Don’t earn it, receive it.  Don’t figure it out, believe it.

Confession is simply saying what God has already said.  God says you are a sinner, and you confess your sins.  God says he is holy, and we confess he is holy.  God says he is Father, Son and Spirit, and we say, amen!  Blessed be the Holy Trinity!

This is what the Christian church has done, over the many years, especially by means of her creeds.  We set forth in these grand summaries, a confession – a same-saying of what Scripture teaches.  These are not new teachings or invented doctrines.  They are what we have received, and what have been handed down to us by God through the apostles and the prophets, and have been kept by the faithful through the ages.  They are treasures of the church, like the gold setting of a precious gem – which sets forth the true jewel of God’s treasury, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus teaches us the Trinity also, and perhaps especially, in Matthew 28, by his command to make disciples by baptism and teaching.  He sets before us the Triune name of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and commands the church to baptize people into this Divine name.  Notice it’s a singular name with three referents.  It’s really not good grammar, is it?  He should have said in the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Ah, but he knows better.  There’s one name.  There’s one God.  There’s three persons.

Just as Jesus teaches that disciples are made by such a simple thing as baptism.  This also flies in the face of reason.  You mean simple water and a few words can effect salvation?  They can change me, make me different in any meaningful way?  And without me bringing anything to the table?  Why yes, baptism into the name of the Trinue God is a very means of grace, a washing of rebirth and renewal, a burial with Christ and a raising from the dead with him also.  Such is the power of the divine name of the Triune God and the promise of God the Son who died for the sins of the world.

And so the church, and the Christian, does not understand.  But we do confess.  We trust God, not ourselves, to know who he is, what he has done, what he still does.  We humbly receive and boldly confess the truths of his holy word, inspired by the Spirit, made flesh in the Son, to the glory of the Father.

Even now let us confess this faith, and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, in the words of the Athanasian Creed…

Sermon - John 7:37-39 - The Day of Pentecost

 “Thirst for the Spirit”

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39

I was looking at the statistics for the virus this week, as I am sure many of you have also.  One chart listed the likelihood of dying from various causes, including the virus.  Some surprised me, some did not.  Of all the dangers to life and limb we face in this life, dying of thirst is pretty low on our list, isn’t it?  

I think the closest we get to that kind of thirst is after mowing the lawn on a hot Texas day and coming in for a cold drink, maybe even a beer, that first sip or gulp is so good, so refreshing.

I remember watching Sesame Street as a child and seeing an animated short about a man crawling through the desert, sweating and exhausted, calling out and grasping at the air, “Water!  Water!”  I suppose he was dying of thirst.  What a relief it must be for someone like that to find an oasis, and drink their fill.  That water becomes the difference between death and life.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus invites people, you, me, anyone… anyone who thirsts, to come to him and drink.  And he promises such a drink that whoever receives it, that is, whoever believes in him… will also become a source for even more.  From his heart will flow rivers of living water.  And finally, John comments, that Jesus was saying this about the Spirit.  So what do we make of all this today?

For starters, it’s important to notice the setting for this proclamation.  Jesus is at Jerusalem for a feast… one of the 3 major feasts of ancient Israel – the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths.  It was when tents, or booths were set up in the fields for harvest time.  It also recalled the wilderness wandering and God’s providing food and water for the people during their 40 years there.  Remember the manna from heaven and the rock that was struck and poured out water for them to drink?

Tabernacles was a week-long festival, with various ceremonies and rituals taking place throughout those days. One of the rituals involved water. Each morning, water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and carried in a golden pitcher to the temple. The water was poured out, the trumpets would sound, and the people would sing the words of Isaiah, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”1

It’s no accident that Jesus chooses this event, with all this business about water to make these comments about himself and the Spirit.  He’s connecting God’s provision for the people of old with God’s promises in the Messiah, namely, himself.  But just as the manna in the wilderness pointed forward to the true Bread of Life, Jesus… so also the water from the rock pointed forward to the greater waters bestowed by Jesus upon the church – through holy baptism and the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit.  There are so many ways to extol the work of the Holy Spirit among us.  But today, consider the Spirit’s connection to water.

The first mention of the Spirit of God we hear in Scripture is the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of the primeval creation.  The Spirit also makes himself know in the baptism of Jesus, even appearing visibly, in the form of a dove.  And of course, the Holy Spirit comes to each of us Christians in our baptism, through the water and the word of promise there. 

The Spirit is also, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, the “Lord and Giver of Life”.  This is true both of our bodily life and breath, but even more so of the new life of faith.  This is why the Spirit’s work is called “living water”.  Water is always closely connected with life.  Think about it when scientists go looking for life on other planets, one of the first things they look for is water – as far as we know – a necessity for life.  You can live for weeks without eating, but only a few days without water.  And when the water is bad or tainted or too salty you it won’t help you.  It needs to be good water, healthy and pure water.  How much more the living water that Jesus Christ gives!

And so Jesus invites all who thirst.  But he means more than physical thirst.  All who have a desire and yearning for peace.  All who know their deepest need.  All who sorrow over their sins and yearn for the comfort, the quenching of the soul that the Gospel brings.  All who look for the washing away of all the troubles of this sad life marred by griefs of all kinds.  

If everything is just dandy in your life, and if you have not even a spot of trouble in your conscience… then you don’t have the thirst.  But if you know it’s all wrong.  If you see the world isn’t as it should be, and more than that, you aren’t how you should be.  Then you’re approaching that thirst.  Then you need Jesus, and Jesus you will receive.

Luther puts it this way:  “Christ chose words that addressed themselves to the heart and to those who felt the need of them. These are comforting, friendly, and charming words; they refresh, console, and strengthen the thirsty.”

It’s so simple.  Come to me, believe in me, and receive from me.  There’s no complicated process or set of instructions to follow.  There’s no 12 or 100 step program to earn this living water.  It’s a gift.  It’s free.  Freely given by the one who freely gave himself even unto death, even death upon the cross.

There also we see water – as the spear pierced his side, and blood and water issued forth.  Water, blood and spirit crying – all three give testimony to the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

John says Jesus was speaking here of the Spirit, but that the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.  Well, that’s true in a sense.  In another sense, the Spirit had already been there from eternity, was active in creation, and also spoke by the prophets.  But the Spirit would come in a new way, and with particular power, when the glorified Christ poured out the Spirit on Pentecost.

On that day – the Gospel was preached to pilgrims from all over the world who had gathered at Jerusalem.  Miraculously so, in their own languages.  And presumably many of those who heard and believed would carry that message home, and the same Spirit would work through that Gospel and continue to bring more and more sinners to believe in Christ.

That the church would continue to grow and the kingdom expand, that the word of Christ would be preached even to the ends of the earth – is the work of the Spirit even today.  And it takes us back to the water.

Notice Jesus says about those who thirst and come to him – they receive a living water.  But it’s not just for them.  It’s a water that flows out of their hearts, out of our hearts.  The blessings of Christ are not to be hoarded and clutched and squirreled away for ourselves.  Faith isn’t like that.  Faith flows, like water.  It springs forth from us in ways we may not even always comprehend.  For just as the Spirit moves when and where he wills, so does he employ the believers in Christ as he so chooses.  To love and serve neighbors.  To witness to the hope that is within us.  To pray and work and love and give.  Living waters, flowing naturally from the believer as water flows from a spring.

Do you thirst for forgiveness, sinner?  Then come to Christ and drink freely.  Do you want to see the work of the Spirit?  Then give ear to the words and promises of Jesus.  And you will receive the living water freely, only to see it flow forth from you, by the power of the Holy Spirit himself.  Thanks be to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

1 Paragraph taken from a sermon by Rev. Charles Henrickson

Sermon - Easter 7 - John 17:1-11

Easter 7

John 17:1-11

“Jesus the High Priest”

John 17 is widely known as the “Great High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus.  It follows Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” of John chapters 13-16, and immediately precedes the account of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest in chapter 18.

But before digging into the text itself, let’s consider the scriptural character of priesthood, and how Jesus fits into it.

In the Old Testament, the priests were set aside as a special, or holy, class of individuals whose basic purpose was to represent the people before God.  They did this by their activity in the sacrificial system – offering up various sacrifices on behalf of the people.  They also did this by their ministry of prayer – which was also on behalf of the people.

But one man held a singular office – that of the high priest.  He represented, in himself, all of the people.  It was the high priest alone who once a year entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the people by means of the sacrificial blood.  It was the high priest alone who placed the sins of the people upon the scapegoat and sent that goat out to die in the wilderness with those sins.

So the priesthood as a whole, and the high priest in particular, served not only to deal with the sins of the people and represent the people before God, but also as a grand foreshadowing of the person and work of Jesus himself.

Jesus, you can see, then, is the great high priest.  He represents the people before God – ALL the people.  Jesus offers up the sacrifice, the once-and-for-all sacrifice of himself, for the sins of the world.  Christ the victim, Christ the priest, as our hymn puts it. 

You need such a priest, for you are a sinner.  And like me and all the other sinners out there – you can’t come to God on your own, on your own merit, with your own good works.  Sinners have no standing before Holy God.  You could sooner get the president on the phone.  You need someone who has access to get you access.  You needs someone who is approved, who has standing, who has the right to speak to God – to speak for you.  You need a priest, and a really pretty good one at that. 

And Jesus Christ, as the highest of high priests, not only represents us before the Father by his blood, but also in his prayers.  Here in John 17 we have a very precious one of those prayers recorded.

What a wonderful blessing to have this extended prayer of Jesus written for our learning!  Herein, he teaches and comforts us.  He shows us his nature and purpose, and also defines us as his people over against the unbelieving world.  He lets us listen in, as it were, on his earnest prayer to the Father on our behalf. 

First, Jesus prays concerning glory.  That he has glorified the Father and that he, the Son, would be glorified.  Here Jesus refers to his work on Earth to this point, and the “hour that has come”, namely, his upcoming suffering and death.  It is in the shame and suffering and humiliation of the cross that God is glorified, that Christ is glorified.  What a strange glory it is – to be unjustly arrested and tried, tortured and killed.  It is not a glory as the world counts glory.  But it is the highest glory of God, the Christ crucified for sinners, to gain eternal life for his people.  The glory of the cross.

Then he would be glorified in resurrection and ascension, having accomplished all, and returning to the presence of the Father.  Jesus knew the plan all along, understood it, and accomplishes it perfectly.

Secondly, he prays for us, his people.  The ones that the Father has given him.  The ones that are “out of” the world.  One of the running themes in John’s Gospel is the distinction between the believers and the world, And what makes these disciples of Jesus, and all disciples so distinct from the world?  They keep the word of the Father, and of the Christ.  We hold to his teaching and trust in his Gospel.  This is faith language.

We trust Christ and receive him because we know that he is one with the Father, and that all the Father has given him, he gives to us, most especially his word.

In this, Jesus does NOT pray for the unbelieving world.  They don’t know him anyway.  They hate him.  They despise his word and rebel against the Father.  Such were you and I apart from his gracious call to faith.  Until the Father gave us to Christ.  But now we are his, and we are in him and in the Father.  And as we trust in him and are saved by him, he is glorified in us.

Jesus also prays, in this prayer, that we would be one.  That the church that belongs to him and has been called out of this world would be united with one another in him.  Jesus prays that this would happen as we are kept in the Father’s name.

Unity in the church, unity of faith, is found in the unity that God gives by his word.  It is unity based in that word, and what it teaches.  No outward unity matters compared to this.  It’s more than that we would just all be nice and get along with each other.  It’s greater than shared traditions, a shared musical heritage, or favorite pot-luck recipes.  Christians are united – absolutely one – in Christ.  And in our faithfulness to his word, we express that unity outwardly by our confession of it.

And isn’t it wonderful that the Father answered Jesus’ prayer!  He glorified Christ in that cross.  He glorified him in resurrection and ascension.  And he glorifies him in the church, even now, as sinners come to repentance and faith, and Christ crucified is preached to the very ends of the earth.

I encourage you to read the rest of this chapter, for we only have the first 11 verses of it in our reading today.  There Jesus continues to pray that his people would be consecrated and sanctified.  He prays that we would be kept from the wicked influence of the world, and from the evil one.

And he even makes it crystal clear he isn’t just praying for the 12 disciples, or that small band of early Christians in Jerusalem.  He says, “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.”

Jesus is our great prophet, priest and king.  Today we consider him as the Great High Priest.  The one who prays for us.  The one who is sacrificed for us.  The one who is glorified by the Father at the cross, and who shares that glory with us, his people.

Thanks be to God for the ongoing ministry of Christ.  For he who shed his blood at Calvary, now pleads for us by that same blood before the throne of God.  And he who prayed before his disciples, and in the garden, still prays and intercedes for us, on our behalf.  May our Great High Priest ever be glorified also among us.

Sermon - Easter 6 - 1 Peter 3:13-22

"The Exalted Christ"

1 Peter 3:13-22

If you look at today’s Epistle reading, especially the last half of it, you can almost see the outline of the Apostles’ Creed hiding in there: 

Christ... suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into Hell.  The third day He rose again from the dead.  He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

And this is not an accident.  For the Apostles’ Creed summarizes the teaching of the apostles, including St. Peter, here.

But more than a biography, the Second Article of the Creed shows forth the most important elements of Jesus’ saving work for us, his people.  In fact the Gospels themselves are less concerned with Jesus as a historical figure, or in telling us all the pertinent details of his resume, his backstory and his personal preferences.  They barely mention anything about the majority of his life – with only one of the four Gospels telling us the story of his nativity. 

They do however, spend a great deal of time on his public ministry – the three years of preaching and miracles that preceded his death, resurrection and ascension.  For most of that time, if we were to consider Jesus’ life and ministry as a whole, he seemed to be fairly well like us.  Apart from an angelic message to some humble shepherds, and a star that brought some wise men from the East a couple of years later, his origins appear fairly mundane.  He is born in humility, of a woman, just like us, and placed even in a manger.  He is raised by loving parents of no particular fame or wealth.  As an adult he also lived in relative poverty, relying on the kindness of others, many of them women, to support his ministry.  He once remarked, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58).  He rode in to Jerusalem not in the magnificent opulence of a king on a grand steed, but humbly, on a donkey, and a borrowed one at that.  Even in death he had to borrow a tomb from a rich man.

So much of Jesus’ life on earth among us was marked by humility.  Humble service in washing feet and welcoming the least, the outcasts, the children.  Humble suffering and death, even death upon a cross.  And of course all of this, he does for you.  He humbles himself to raise you up.

We describe the first phase of his work – from his conception to his death and burial, as the Savior in the “State of Humiliation”.  That is to say, that during this time, he generally set aside his divine power, majesty and glory and humbled himself intentionally, and voluntarily.

But humility doesn’t really cover or adequately describe all of Jesus’ work. 

Beginning with his resurrection and descent into Hell, he enters a new chapter, or phase – his “State of Exaltation”.  And it is this that today’s reading from 1 Peter 3 really helps explain.

First of all a word about the timing.  If you take the Creed on its face, it would seem that the timeline after Jesus’ burial continues with his descent into Hell and then his resurrection after that.  But 1 Peter 3 seems to indicate otherwise, mentioning the resurrection first: “being put to death pin the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.” But this really isn’t a problem.  For one, there’s nothing that tells us the Creed means to be taken as a literal timeline.  And secondly, since Jesus’ descent into Hell was “in the Spirit”, there’s a certain amount of mystery surrounding how it happened anyway.  When dealing in spiritual things we are sometimes too quick to shackle them with the bonds of time and space – which may not be fair.  Best not to get bogged down in these questions and rather focus on the point Scripture and the Creed are both making about this.

It’s easy to see how Jesus’ victory over death and bodily resurrection are part of his exaltation.  In showing his power over death, he begins to take back and exercise his Divine rights, his glory and power.  The conquering, victorious and exalted Christ shows death who is boss.  Thanks be to God!  This is our Easter joy!

But what of his descent into Hell, or as Peter puts it, his “proclaiming to the spirits in prison”?  What do we make of this? We can set aside two false ideas of the descent into Hell from the outset.

Jesus did not descend into Hell to suffer.  He made that much clear with his word from the cross, “it is finished”.  Though he did suffer the torments of hell while on that cross, even crying out to show us when the Father had forsaken him.  For what is the worst of the suffering of Hell, but that God would turn his back on you.  And the Father did that to the Son in the great mystery of Jesus’s crucifixion.  He suffered Hell, there and then, in your place.  But when he died it was finished.  His subsequent descent into Hell was for another purpose.

He also did not descend into Hell to give the condemned a second chance.  He was not emptying Hell out, or freeing the prisoners there as some have taught (and even as some iconography depicts).  It is appointed for a man to die once and then the judgment.  Those who died in the faith, even in the Old Testament, did not go into death apart from God, but rather to paradise, to Abraham’s bosom.  Elijah and Enoch and Moses and Abraham and so many other Old Testament believers – went to be with the Lord.  It is the unbelievers that constitute the “spirits in prison” mentioned here, along with the Devil and all his demons.  It is to these forces of evil that Jesus proclaimed his victory over death and sin and hell, and therefore also, over them.

And so the descent into Hell, is really part of Jesus’ work of exaltation.  It is part of the glorious victory celebration that his saving work is complete, and effective, and can never be undone.  It is a sort of a dancing on death’s grave, in triumph, for you and me.

Our Lutheran Confessions put it this way:

“It is enough if we know that Christ descended into hell, destroyed hell for all believers, and delivered them from the power of death and of the devil, from eternal condemnation and the jaws of hell.  We will save our questions and not curiously investigate about how this happened until the other world.  Then not only this mystery, but others also will be revealed that we simply believe here and cannot grasp with our blind reason.” (FC Ep IX 4).

Somehow Peter then works from the disobedient souls consigned to hell and brings us to the topic of baptism.  The connection is that hell is filled with all manner of unbelievers, even going as far back as the flood.  But even then, God was busy saving – Noah and his family, 8 souls in all, through the flood.  That saving through a flood corresponds to Baptism, where and how God now saves us.  And by the way, many baptismal fonts like ours have 8 sides, the shape of an octagon, to commemorate Noah and his 7 family members who were saved through the flood – 8 souls in all. 

We will save the more complete sermon on Baptism for another day – but today it’s enough to show that Christ’s Baptism – bestowed on the church, and by which we make disciples of all nations – this too is part of his exalted work.  For now, from Heaven’s high throne, he continues to send his Spirit, calling new believers to salvation through the water and the word.  The Lord of the Church, reigning over all, exalted once again – still saves sinners through the washing of rebirth and renewal.  Just as he also, exalted on high, still meets us at the altar under the bread and the wine that he gives as his body and blood.

So, If all angels are now beneath him.  If death and hell are trampled under his victorious foot.  If all powers and authorities and governments and rulers are made subject to the King on his glorious throne a the right hand of the Father – if Christ is exalted on high – that is good news for you, Christian.  For he rules all things for your good, and for the good of the church to which you belong.  What can sin or death or devil do to you, when the exalted Christ is your savior, your champion, your king?

Christ’s state of humiliation, his state of exaltation, these aren’t just esoteric doctrinal categorizations for theologians in ivory towers.  They’re simple ways of helping us see all that Jesus has done for us, and continues to do for us.  Humbled for us, even unto death, even death on a cross.  And now exalted for us, even to Heaven, to the highest throne.  Thanks be to God.  In Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Sermon - Easter 5 - John 14:1-6

Fifth Sunday of Easter
John 14:1-6
“Jesus the Way, Truth and Life”

First of all a happy mothers day to all of you, whether moms or honoring or remembering our moms today, we give thanks to God for this special vocation of motherhood.  It’s not a church holiday, but the Scriptures certainly afford great honor to motherhood.  It is through our mother that God brings each of us into this world, and provides us with so much nurturing and care.  Fathers are of course important, too, but there really is nothing quite like the maternal bond.  Thanks be to God for our mothers.

Today we observe the Fifth Sunday of Easter, and the shape of the Easter season takes on a bit of a new character in these last few weeks.  The early few Sundays focused intently on Jesus’ resurrection, his appearances, and the events surrounding all that.  Then last Sunday we had the emphasis on Jesus as Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.  But now it’s as if our Gospel readings have turned a bit of a corner, and we are gearing toward Christ’s ascension and bodily departure from this world.  We come back to the discourse of Jesus earlier in John’s Gospel where he is preparing his disciples for his inevitable departure – meaning both the cross and grave, but also after that, his ascension.

The thought of Jesus going away could well be very upsetting to any of his disciples.  It’s been difficult for us to be absent from church even these 6 weeks or so, absent from participation in the Sacrament of the Altar.  But at least we expected this to be only temporary.  For the disciples, Jesus was going away in a way they didn’t understand, and they wouldn’t see him again until their own death.  To have Jesus in their midst these three years, and then to have him taken away – only to come back again – and then depart again… it could have all been so troubling.

But Jesus knows this.  And so he prepares them.  He begins his going away speech with these words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, trust also in me”.  There is no place for fear in the life of disciple of Jesus.  There is, however, great room and cause for trust.  Trust God, the Father, who sent his son.  And trust Jesus, the one who does all things for us. 

To believe in God the Father is really the same as believing in Jesus, for he too is Lord and God (as Thomas would confess).  John’s Gospel is marvelous in showing the continuity between God the Father and God the Son, their unity and oneness of purpose.

He departs, but not without lavishing promises upon us.  He goes to heaven, not to get away, but to reign and rule all things for us.  And, as he teaches them here, to prepare a place for us.
In the Father’s house are many rooms.  And Jesus goes to prepare a place for us.  There are many rooms because there is a place for each and everyone one of his many disciples.  All who believe in Jesus have claim to this promise.  A place in heaven.  A home in eternity, in the very house of God.  Or as one translation puts it, the “mansions of heaven”.  I remember one dear older lady who made me promise to use that translation at her funeral – “pastor don’t you say many rooms.  I want the one that says ‘mansions’ in heaven”.  And what a beautiful confession of faith in this promise of Jesus.  For his promises are always better than we can dream or imagine.

He fleshes out this promise even more:  That he will come back for us, and take us to be with him.  He will return, personally, to make sure we get there.  This is no probable or possible place for us he’s preparing.  It’s not a maybe mansion.  It’s a definite destination.  Oh, it will happen, because his promise is strong and trustworthy and true.  You have a future, a home, an eternity with God and with Jesus.

Eternity at home doesn’t sound so good to so many of who’ve been stuck under a lockdown.  But eternity in the Father’s house, and with Jesus, will be nothing but good.  No more sin or death.  No more suffering or pain.  God himself wiping every tear from our eyes.

And you know the way to get there.

Now, some might say the way to get there is to be a good person.  To have a positive balance of karma.  Or at least to mind your own business, live and let live.  Others might say follow the commandments, or even just give it your best shot.  Others will say it’s an act of will, or a decision, or that God will give you a leg up but you just need to work with him.  Oh the many ways and means we invent and imagine.  The many angles and attempts of humans to make their own way.  But there is only one way to the Father, there is only one way to heaven, there is only one escape from this body of death, this world of evil and the just condemnation of our own sins.  You know the way.
The way is Jesus.  The way, the truth, the life.  No one comes to the Father but by him.

But by him, we can, and we do!

Jesus is the means and the destination. 

Phillip asks to see the Father.  But Jesus tells him he already has, since he has seen Jesus.  So here is the principle:  if you want to know the Father, know Jesus.  If you want to see the Father, see Jesus.  What the Father does and wills, so does Jesus.  As the Father is, so is Jesus.  While the Father and Son are distinct persons, yet there is a oneness of substance and will.  They share fully in the Divine Unity.  This is all so very “Gospel of John”

And so the disciples were looking for the way to the Father, but they’d known him all along.  They were looking for something to do, but it was already done in Jesus Christ.  The way, the one way, the only way, but way a blessed way he is.

As I mentioned earlier, this begins a shift in the Easter Season, as Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for his departure – both his death and resurrection – and then his Ascension.  Jesus leads the way for us – both into death, and out of death.  He leads the way back to the Father also in his ascension to heaven.  Where he goes, we will also go.  Where he is, we will be.

But in the meantime, do not let your hearts be troubled.  For though he is away, he is also with us.  Though he has bodily ascended, he is present in the bread and wine.  Though we cannot see him with our eyes, our faith is focused on him, and on his promise to be with us always, and also to come back.
We Christians live with a sort of a dual reality in so many ways.  Sinners and saints.  Old Adam and New.  Body and Spirit.  But we also live in the now and the not yet.  We live here an earthly life in a vale of sorrows, but our life is also hidden with God in Christ.  So that whoever lives and believes in Jesus, the way, the truth and the life, will live even though he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in him will never truly die.  We have hope in Christ for his life, but also for a life to come, a paradise that is being prepared and will one day be revealed to us.

The future is already ours.  We already know the way. The way is always by grace through faith in Christ. We rest in the truth.  Everything that Jesus says is trustworthy and true, even what has not yet come to pass. And we have been given the life – the life that he won by his glorious resurrection – the resurrection which opens the way out of the grave for each of us.

There are many things that could lead your heart to be troubled, here, and now.  But Jesus says don’t.  And he gives us cause.  He calls us to trust, and makes us beautiful promises of brighter days.  Do not let sin and sorrow, guilt and death or any other trouble have sway.  For Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. 

Sermon - Easter 4 - 1 Peter 2:19-25

1 Peter 2:19-25

Good Shepherd Sunday

"Jesus the Shepherd and Overseer of Your Souls"

The Fourth Sunday in Easter has become, in recent decades, “Good Shepherd Sunday”.  Taking our cues from the lectionary, where each year we take this week to focus on the grand biblical metaphor of shepherd and sheep.  It’s a common enough picture, especially for the pastoral people of Palestine in biblical times, and really, even today.  And it’s a very simply but profound picture with many points of comparison.  And of course, Jesus is the Good Shepherd to whom we always come back, or rather, who always seeks his sheep, that is, you and me.

The relationship between shepherd and sheep reaches even back into the Old Testament.  There we can already see the effects of sin in the very first shepherd – Abel.  Already foreshadowing the Christ, who is both shepherd of sheep and victim of violence, Abel, the one who didn’t deserve to die is killed by the one who did – Cain.  And yet God shows mercy on Cain, marking him with protection.  Abel’s blood for vengeance pleads unto the skies, but the blood of Jesus, for our pardon cries.

And then you have the patriarchs – also shepherds.  Much of the unfolding of God’s plan for salvation happens in the context of shepherding.  Abraham is a generous shepherd, giving the choice land to nephew Lot.  Jacob is a shrewd shepherd, multiplying his own flock.  And so many more stories of the daily life of our forefathers in the faith show the place of the shepherd.

And so even we, who live in cities and drive cars, and shop at Walmart, can learn from the relationship of shepherd and sheep.  We can find our place in the flock, under the watchful rod and staff of the great Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today, let’s focus especially on the Epistle reading.  For here we can mine some more nuggets and treasures out of the grand metaphor of shepherd and sheep.  Here we will find both law and gospel, sin and grace, rule and comfort.

Peter, in our epistle reading, shows forth some different aspects of the Good Shepherd you may not hear much about in Lutheran churches.  Christ, in his suffering, is an example for us.  The Good Shepherd leads the way – yes, even into and through suffering.  And Christ brings his straying sheep back, for he is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.

Now, this is not to say that Jesus is ONLY example, or even primarily so.  We aren’t saying that, and neither is Peter.  He shows that Christ “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness”.  He’s not telling us to bear our own sins or anything like that.  Christ is the savior.  We are the save-ees.  That much is clear, both here, and in all of Scripture.

But this doesn’t negate Peter’s call that we should “Follow in [Jesus’] steps”. 

He committed no sin.  So you, commit no sin.  There was no deceit in his mouth.  So let your mouth also be deceit free.  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.  So you, also, do not return evil for evil.  And when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.  So you also, when you suffer, trust God – the just judge – to get it right, to make it right.

So often when we suffer we look for justice, or even revenge.  We know, somehow, deep down, that suffering isn’t right.  It’s not just because it’s unpleasant, but it also shouldn’t be.  When someone sins against us, even as a young child, we demand justice!  We want the scales balanced!

Hypocritically, though, we’re not so concerned with justice when we suffer for our own sins.  Think of the two robbers on the cross – one had the sense to humbly confess they were receiving the due punishment for their deeds.  And if you forget that yourself, then our confession of sins does a good job reminding us – and guiding us to speak the words – we deserve temporal and eternal punishment.  So what credit is it to you, then, if you suffer what you actually deserve?  If you are beaten for you sin, and endure, Peter asks. Rather, suffer injustice and persecution with patience and joy.  Endure the unjust hardships following the example of Christ himself.

And a faith that follows Jesus trusts that God will sort it all out.  If we suffer unjustly, God will make it right. And if we suffer for our own sins, we beg forgiveness and mercy.  No servant is greater than his master.  No sheep is better than the shepherd.  No Christian is above the Christ.

Die to sin.  Now there’s something.  And it likely means some suffering. When you die to sin you avoid the carnal pleasures of sin, the siren call of this world’s delights.  Even the satisfaction of revenge is a thrill that Christians put aside, and rather suffer the injustice of persecution until God makes it right in his time and way.  So Christ the Good Shepherd showed us, so we the sheep must follow.  He died for all sin.  You get to die to sin, and live in and to his righteousness.

By his wounds, you were healed.  Never forget the wounds he suffered for you.  Never stray far from those nail marks, that scourged back, those thorns in his crown, the spear in his side.  Those wounds – from which flowed the precious blood of Christ.  Those wounds are your healing from sin and death. By his stripes we are healed.  In his death, we live.

And now the Good Shepherd part of this passage.  You were straying like sheep!  Here’s an accusation!  Nobody wants to be compared to a dog or a monkey or some other silly animal.  But being called a sheep is no compliment either!  Even today, we know that sheep have a reputation for empty-headedness.  They can wander off if they aren’t looked after.  They need supervision.  The lost sheep.  Sometimes we speak of this way about a family member who has always had a hard time in life – difficulties making good decisions, and always seems to be wandering somewhere without direction.

But we also know that sheep can just as mindlessly follow a shepherd.  And so this can be an insult of another kind – people who uncritically follow their leaders, who mindlessly believe whatever is spoon fed them by the media, or some charismatic charmer.  There’s even the word “sheeple” – people who act like mindless sheep in this way.  Don’t be a sheeple, like they are!

But the picture here is different.  The wandering sheep is brought back.  And it’s not to a mindless following of a huckster or charlatan.  Rather, it is a faithful trust in the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  We were straying in sin.  But now we have returned to him.

And this, not of ourselves, either!  The Good Shepherd seeks and saves the lost.  He calls and leads the sheep back.  He even pulls us out of the pit and carries us to safety.  He does it all.

He’s not just the Shepherd, he’s the Good Shepherd.  Good unlike any other.  Giving gifts and bestowing grace.  Leading where no one else could lead their sheep – through death and then out on the other side of the grave.  Therefore the Valley of the Shadow of Death brings us no fear of evil.  He is with us.  He comforts us.  Feeds us.  Makes us lie down in peace.

Just look at this last phrase.  A title.  Peter calls Jesus the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. And we’ve explored the Shepherd part, but what about an overseer?  While it seems to have taken on an unfavorable connotation in our language, an overseer is not a taskmaster or a vindictive bully in charge of a group of slaves.  Even if we translated it as “supervisor”, there still runs the risk of us calling to mind all the unbearable bosses and tedious workplace leaders we’ve had to answer to. 

But this overseer is different.  Just as he’s no ordinary shepherd. He’s the overseer who’s watching over.  He’s the guardian and protector of your soul, your very life.  He’s the one looking out for you.  We might call him the “Good Overseer”.

And another translation of that is bishop.  Just as another translation of shepherd is pastor.  So too faithful ministers of the word throughout all generations have sought to follow the example of the Good Shepherd.  A faithful pastor will care for the sheep and lead in love, not by fear or intimidation.  And a faithful pastor will echo the voice of the Good Shepherd.  He will preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and call the straying sheep to repentance and faith and forgiveness. May God grant it to his church, here, and in all places.   

A blessed Good Shepherd Sunday to you, and to all the sheep in the care of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.  May we both trust in him and follow his example.  May we suffer with endurance, die to sin, and live to his righteousness.  And may we always follow the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.  Amen.