April 21, 2024 Text:  John 10:11-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

Remember the game show Let’s Make A Deal?  Hosted by Monty Hall, the players had choices.  Many times, the choice would be between something they already had and what was behind door #1, door #2, or door #3.  Sometimes it was a better prize – a car or vacation – but at other times it would be a donkey or big stuffed animal or a car that wouldn’t run.  

In our text for today it is about Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  In fact, John 10:1-18, is all about this theme.  Preceding our text, in verses 7 & 9 Jesus calls Himself “the door.”  I like that.  A door has two sides.  There is a blessed thing about Jesus:  Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and a door.

John 10 gives us this good news that Jesus the Good Shepherd and the Door . . .

“PROTECTS HIS SHEEP”

Hello fellow sheep.  Do you need some protection?  Again, a door has two sides.  On one side Jesus is providing his grace and mercy.  He opens His gracious hand to provide us pasture and living water – food and drink.  On the other side He closes the door so that we receive protection from the thieves and wolves.  We need help so the false shepherds do not steal our soul.

In the First Reading from Acts, the leaders of Israel were annoyed because the disciples were teaching about the resurrection of Jesus.  After all that had happened, they still didn’t believe.  The wolves, the Sadducees and high priests, wanted to scatter the flock.  Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit made this wonderful witness, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Let’s go back to a famous door.  One day, on orders from the Almighty, Noah and his sons built an ark.  This ark had a door.  The rains started up and at some point, Noah and his family boarded the ark.  Then what did they do?  They closed the door.  When that happened, the rain fell for God’s judgment.  For the people who still had faith, this small group of eight, the door provided protection.  Eventually, the rain would subside and Noah was able to open the door and reveal God’s Blessing on the earth.  Judgment was also present.  The door was shut on those who did not believe.  It was the same door, but your eternal fate was determined on which side of the door you were on.

Like on Let’s Make A Deal, we enter doors all the time that reveal something new.  Someone’s home you have never been to, a new school you will be attending, a hotel room in a foreign city, a restaurant you have been excited to chow down at, a medical room awaiting a doctor’s diagnosis, a funeral home to pick out a casket.  Some doors you can’t wait for.  Some doors you would like to never face.

No matter what you find behind the door, the Good Shepherd is there.  You receive Jesus as your Lord and master.  Outside these doors, many are rejecting Jesus.  They are outside the ark we might say.  Judgment is raining down.  

But you are safe.  Just like Noah was safe from the wind and waves and flooding waters, you are safe from God’s judgment.  You are protected from the wrath of God.  Sheep are put into pens with doors closed to keep out the wolves.  In the same way, Jesus is watching over you and keeping you safe from the devil and his evil angels.  Inside these doors of our church, God feeds and nourishes you.  You hear His voice in the preaching and proclamation of God’s Word.  You drink from the living water that flows from the baptismal font.  You eat the food that he has prepared at his banquet table, bread and wine that is his body and blood that offers you forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Don’t be afraid.  Let the Holy Spirit take your hand.  Reach out.  Turn the knob.  Open it.  Go ahead.  Heaven and all its glory, all the blessings of God Almighty given for you. Come, enter through the door that is Jesus and find your Good Shepherd waiting for you.

Amen.  

April 7, 2024 Text:  John 20:19-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

If you are a parent, there is one moment that stands out.  The first time you got to touch your baby boy or baby girl.  The skin, the warmth, your flesh and blood in your arms.  It’s emotional.  It’s life-changing.  You can’t forget that time.  I couldn’t stop kissing the boys.  That touch that started in Overland Park, Kansas and Normal, Illinois delivery rooms continues to this day.

Touch is so important.  The disciple Thomas was a toucher.  It was a moment in his life he won’t soon forget.  

“THE TOUCH OF THE LORD”

The research is clear, people, especially children need touch.  If children are not touched, they grow at a slower rate, they are sicker, they have more trouble socially and they display more angry and depressed emotions.

It doesn’t stop there.  When you meet that special someone, you want to hold hands, put your arms around each other, sit close.  Do you married couples have that secret touch between the two of you that says, “I love you.”

We need that kind of touch.  The one that says love, assurance, closeness, comfort, happiness.  Touch says the other person is there, alive, real – and so are you.

We get to Thomas.  He’s a doubter.  A little skeptical.  See, he wasn’t there when Jesus first appeared risen from the dead.  He would not believe unless he touched Jesus.  “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (v. 25)

It is over a week later that Jesus appears.  Jesus must know that Thomas is doubting because it is Jesus who says these words, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (v. 27)  Just the right touch.  He gets to touch the Lord and Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.” (v. 28)

In Jesus’ lifetime there was a lot of people who needed to see him.  There were people who needed to touch him and be touched by him.  When he blessed the children in Luke 18.  When he placed the mud on the eyes of the man born blind in John 9.  The woman who needed to touch his cloak in Luke 8.  The washing of the disciples’ feet in John 13.  Those are just a few of the many times that the touch of the Lord was important.

We need the touch of the Lord.  The sign of the cross on our forehead and hearts and then the water touching our head in Baptism.  Jesus is there.  At the baptismal font, we touch and have been touched by Jesus in just the right way.

As we come to the altar the touch of the Lord is here.  He has promised to be in that piece of bread and sip of wine.  His body.  His blood.  The living Jesus, right there.  Among us.  Touching us.  Jesus is close to us and saying, “I love you.”  He is giving assurance, comfort, and joy as he purifies us from all sin.  He is real, present, and alive – and so are we when we touch that bread and wine, that body and blood.

When we are touched by the Lord, we then extend that touch to others.  In ministry touch is so important.  The sick and the dying and the struggling want to know that someone is there.  As members of Christ, we give hugs to our fellow brothers and sisters.  We give mutual consolation to each other.  In a way, that’s Jesus touching us through his Church.

One day we will have the same joy and wonder of touching Jesus as Thomas did.  His resurrection says our hope is that touch and being touched will not end at the grave, but will be ours again on the Last Day and for all eternity.  The leper, the abandoned child, the brokenhearted, the grieving parents, the son who remembers – all need the touch of the Lord.  Jesus incredible gift to us is that we are, and we will be touched by the Lord.

Amen.      

March 31, 2024 – Easter Text:  Mark 16:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last March actress Gwyneth Paltrow and optometrist Terry Sanderson went to trial over a ski crash.  They both blamed each other.  He sued for damages, and she sued for defamation.  The jury decided for the actress.  The headline read “Gwyneth Paltrow gets vindication at ski collision trial.”

A few months before that, here in Illinois, a man was released from prison after serving almost 30 years for murder.  DNA evidence proved he was not the killer.  “I feel vindicated,” he said.

To be vindicated is to be cleared of guilt or to be proven right.  Today we conclude our Lenten Series “God On Trial” with our Easter theme . . .

“VINDICATION”

Who needs to be vindicated?  For starters, Jesus.  After Good Friday it sure looked like Jesus was wrong.  Put on trial, declared guilty of blasphemy, sentenced to death.  Pontius Pilate was judge and jury and with a little peer pressure from blinded souls, he handed down the sentence:  death by crucifixion.

Jesus was hanging there between two criminals, bleeding and dying, he looked so weak and powerless.  If he were who he claimed to be why wouldn’t God rescue him?  If he were God, couldn’t he escape?  Like every other person who hung on a cross, he breathed his last.  His lifeless body was buried in a tomb.

How could his followers process everything?  As darkness settled on the land they had a bitter mix of sadness, confusion, doubt, and fear.  

Maybe you can relate.  Some you love has died.  After all the funeral planning, the funeral and burial, friends and family head home.  Darkness settles, it’s quiet in the house, you feel alone.  “Lord, I am lost and confused.  I just don’t understand.”

It is not just the death of a loved one that leads to these thoughts.  Death reminds us that our time is running out.  Bodies failing, minds fading.  Even the young have their anxieties about making the right choices – friends, relationships, college, and career.  It’s the vertigo of a million possibilities.  We may wallow in guilt as mistakes are magnified in our minds.  How we have let down our Savior.

We may not know what the women were thinking on Easter morning, but we know what they were doing.  They went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body – one final act of love.  Then a young man in a white robe says, “Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen; he is not here.  See the place where they laid him.”

It is too much to process.  They fled trembling and in astonishment.  But it would sink in.  Jesus would appear to them and many others.  The reports were corroborated again and again.  The good news was true:  “Victory!” was the headline.  Vindication!

Jesus didn’t come down from the cross to prove he was the Son of God.  He did something better; he rose from the dead.  On Easter, Jesus was proved right:  he is the God-man, the Messiah that he claimed to be.

Easter is vindication.  Do you ever wonder what his enemies thought?  Jesus took their sin, He took your sin, He took my sin and he died for it on the cross.  The exclamation – “It is finished.”  Vindication!  All those sins are paid for.

Easter is vindication for the prophets of old who told of the coming Messiah.  People like Job who placed their hope in Jesus, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth…yet in my flesh I will see God.”  Jesus’ resurrection is proof that Job was right.  It is proof for us too.  With Christ raised from the dead, we have hope beyond this life.  Jesus’ resurrection is the promise of the resurrection for all people.  That day will be our ultimate vindication. 

Easter is vindication for us as we live as people judged by this world.  Yes, the Christian Church is in decline in the United States.  Less people follow Jesus and worship in our churches.  Citizens are becoming more secular.  Even Christians might say, “The church is dying.”  Is that possible?  How can the church be dying when it is the body of the risen Christ?  Some churches may close, some Christians may fall away, but as long as Jesus lives, so does his church.  It may not be growing here, but in parts of the world the Christian Church is exploding in numbers.  People will always be hungry for the Gospel and the message of a Risen Christ.  We are vindicated!

We are on a triumphal march to glory.  We testify to the truth as we humbly and simply sing the victory song with saints and angels in heaven.  Sin is forgiven.  Death is defeated.  Jesus is Lord.  Christ and his people have been put on trial, and Easter brings the victorious verdict:  Vindication.  Alleluia!

Amen.