Sermon for 4th Sunday of Easter

 Jesus said, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me” John 16:16.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Easter continues. In fact, every week we gather on this day, the Lord’s day, in remembrance and celebration of the Sunday resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And the believers in Jesus will continue to do so until the end of time.

“A little while” – That’s what Jesus calls this time we are in right now, the time between his first coming and his second coming – the time between when he came here to earth to die on the cross and rise again and the time in the near future when he will come again to judge the living and the dead. His disciples are expected to wait this little while with faith and the expectation of great and joyful things to come when their Lord Jesus returns. As he says, “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (vs. 22).

That’s the life that we who are his disciples have now, as we wait with joyful expectation to see him.

We have this life after Easter.

Psalm 116 gives a handy way of describing what this life after Easter is like. I am going to introduce this Psalm today, and include it in services in the weeks ahead, that by continued praying it and remembering it, the words will stick in our minds and the meaning will stick in our hearts.

Psalm 116:12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?

Consider all his benefits. We are beneficiaries of a great and wondrous treasure. This treasure has been paid for, not with money, not with gold, but with the precious blood of Christ and his innocent suffering and death.

Life after Easter is given meaning when we consider this question, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? What do you and I, the beneficiaries of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the benefits that flow from Christ, what do we do now, what love, what life do we render to the Lord?

The next verse of Psalm 116 says, I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

This is a vivid picture of our life after Easter. We are given the bountiful benefits of our Lord’s death and resurrection in the cup of blessing that he pours out for us now, in our life time. We meditate on the great things our Lord has done for us.  He has given us pardon and forgiveness for all our sins. He has rescued us from death and hell. He has given us life – life to the fullest now and life forever with him in his Kingdom. What’s the best way to render our puny thanks for that? How can we ever pay the Lord back for his incomprehensible gifts to us? What’s a fair amount to give him in return? It’s way beyond anything we are capable of producing and giving to him. Instead Psalm 116 leads us to say, I will just keep on taking the salvation my Lord is giving. I will keep drinking from the cup of salvation. When I am at a loss to do anything that could properly, fully render my thanks, I will just take more of his benefits to me. It is a foolish and futile notion to think we can somehow repay God for salvation and eternal life.

Who among us can fully repay our mothers for all they’ve done for us? She nurtured you in her womb. She went through an uncomfortable process to give birth to you. She prayed for you, nursed you, got up in the middle of the night for you, worried about you when you were out too long, taught you lessons about earth and heaven. And in return you might give her some tokens, flowers, a nice brunch, but you can’t really give her enough to make up for it all, and that’s not what she would want anyway, is it?

So much more, the relationship between you and your Lord God. You say, “What should I do to say thanks? He says, “Here, have more. Receive again today the blessings given you at your baptism”, he says, “Where I washed your sins away and gave you new life. Come soon and often to my table and eat the body of Christ and drink from the cup of salvation. Call on my name every day, and I will be there and will bless you again and again. My Spirit will be with you, to comfort you, bless you, prosper you and guide you into the new life I have appointed for you.”

Psalm 116: “I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”  Led by the Spirit of God, filled with the blessings of the cup of salvation you are now led to fulfill the vows you have made to the Lord. That’s your calling and vocation in life.

Today we think of this especially with the graduates we are recognizing and honoring. Katie and Grace, I’d suggest you use this time of your graduation to remember and give thanks to the Lord to all his benefits to you. And then consider your vocation.

Vocation is a noun, but it is based on a verb, an active verb with a subject and a couple of objects. God is the subject. You are the object and the things he has in store for you are the objects. He who has created you and redeemed you, now calls you to great things, this new life in Christ. With the aid and comfort of the Holy Spirit, he gives you a life to live in service to him and to others. He calls you to be his daughters and so his representatives here in this life in this world. You are called to show mercy to others as he has shown it to you. He calls you to bless others with the words you speak and the smiles you share and the work you do.

We are wishing you the best today. But of course, things won’t always go smoothly and easily. You know how life here goes. But we go forward with life in faith and trust, with the promises of Jesus our Lord who says to you, “You have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). Amen.

 

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Easter

Jesus said, “So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16).

As we meditate on the words of our Lord today, the images of green pastures and pools of still waters, are sure to bring comfort to the soul, peace to troubled consciences, and a sense of security to frightful hearts.

The rod and the staff of the Good Shepherd comfort the sheep. The rod the shepherd has is to ward off the enemies: the lion, the wild dogs that would harm the sheep. And the staff -- a shepherd’s staff has a crook in it, like you see in the bulletin cover today. That’s to reach out and hook a sheep by the neck or leg, to pull it back in the right direction, to keep her from wondering off or falling into danger. There’s no comfort, peace, or security in just letting the sheep wander off wherever they want to go. The Good Shepherd is gentle and loving, even as he directs and sometimes even disciplines. Comfort, Peace and security comes went the enemies are beaten off, and because so often, a sheep is its own worst enemy. It takes a rod, and it takes a staff to be a good shepherd.

The Epistle reading, 1 Peter 2 talks about the Shepherd and the sheep. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep.” As the shepherd must correct his straying sheep with rod and staff, so it is with our Good Shepherd Jesus. His word is his rod and staff to guide us and to redirect us away from our misguided attitudes and sinful desires.

That’s actually what he was doing that day when he said these words, “I am the Good Shepherd”. The audience for this sermon of Jesus included his disciples, but also a bunch of Pharisees and a formerly blind beggar man. Just before this, Jesus gave sight to the blind man and the Pharisees were all upset about the miraculous healing. You see, Jesus had done this work on the Sabbath and that was against their rules. With no mercy at all toward the poor blind guy, they were vehemently arguing and insulting Jesus. It's like they were mad because the Lord was merciful.

These Pharisees think that they themselves are the big deal. They despise others who are not like them, or who don’t meet their exalted Pharisaic expectations.  And Jesus tells them, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Jesus was all about mercy. And with the rod and the staff of his word, he directs his listeners to show mercy, likewise. That means you have to look at others as God sees them. God shows no partiality toward souls, nor should we, his people.

There is another example of this in the book of James, chapter 2:

“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man.”

This is one of those passages that hits the sinful heart like a rod. It has to hit to the heart because we can use outward “proper” behavior to hide the evil, unmerciful thoughts going on inside.

So hear how Jesus talks to the Pharisees when they have these unloving hearts. He says, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep.”

Is there anyone you despise, that you can’t respect because they are different than what is commonly accepted? Consider this, what if they are sheep of the Lord’s one flock. What if they, like you, know Psalm 23 and pray it? Jesus says, “there will be one flock, one Shepherd.” And he, not you, not me, he is the one who makes the call as to who is in that flock.

This is not to say that all bad behavior is excused. That’s what the world around us has got wrong with the buzz word “tolerance”. They use that word to talk about bad behavior, immoral, perverted behavior that goes against God’s word and creation. The world says tolerance means you cannot critique immorality, you cannot guide children and others away from bad, unhealthy choices and disfunctioning. When really, to be merciful toward your fellow human being means talking about, speaking up for what is good and right and God-pleasing. In mercy we Christians invite others to join us in sorrow for our sins, both sins of outward bad behavior and sins of hidden bad attitudes in the heart.

Then when we and they turn from sin and turn again to follow our Lord we hear his voice. He says “14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

In what way is He our Good Shepherd? Two things: First He knows us, and we know him by faith. And second, He lays down his life for the sheep.

He is your Good Shepherd like so. He guides you to Himself and to follow in His ways, and He dies for you. He loves you and me and all sinners. He doesn’t act out of frustration with us for our intolerable behavior and attitude. No, but in mercy he guides us with rod and staff and he forgives us with his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. Amen.