April 23, 2017 Text: John 20:19-23

Dear Friends in Christ,

“Do you ever peche?” “Is peccato part of your life?” “Do you struggle with gunah?” “What did Jesus do with your dembi?” “When I dosa it really drags me down.” I have just shared with you the most despised word in every language. I did it in French, Italian, Turkish, Somali and Indonesian. Got a guess?
How about few more hints? Everybody says it: “We all make mistakes.” Everybody also says this: “Nobody’s perfect,” including a certain insurance commercial. But try to get Americans to say we constantly do this and you may have an argument. The word is – SIN! We all seem to know we are not perfect but nobody wants to admit that our imperfection – sin deserves God’s eternal punishment. Try that out at the next family dinner if you have relatives who believe that those who give it their best make it to heaven.
It’s still Sunday and it has been quite the day for our brothers and sisters who were alive on that first resurrection. We have a confrontation ready to take place between “poor miserable sinners who deserve God’s punishment” with the joy of Christ’s Resurrection. How can Easter overcome . . .
“THE MOST DESPISED WORD IN EVERY LANGUAGE?”
The boys. The gang. The merry men of misfits are together again. But what has brought them to one another? Fear. In a matter of moments they had abandoned their Savior. One denied him over and over. One hangs himself in shame. Finally, they are all hiding. Doors locked. It’s the way of the flesh, isn’t it?
Last Easter evening on TMC they had the 1953 movie, “The Robe” starring Richard Burton. He played a Roman soldier at the crucifixion that won the robe of Jesus. He eventually comes to believe in Jesus as Savior, the one whom he helped crucify. When I watched it reminded me that life didn’t just stop when this big event in history occurred. It’s like on Dec. 7, 1941 or 9-11, life still continued, people still went about their business.
The disciples were in the fraidy cat business, the boogeyman under the bed danced in their heads. Do you think they realized at that moment that they were “poor, miserable sinners?” It has a way of catching up with us, doesn’t it? We don’t like to admit our sin or the fact that we deserve nothing from God but His anger. But what it does to our heart is to make us “poor” and “miserable.”
“Intervention needed behind door #1 please!” “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’…the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” You know that feeling, don’t you? You see the headlights of your son or daughter’s car coming down the lane or into your driveway. The doctor comes in the room and declares all your tests came back clean. The job or finances come into your life right when you need them.
That’s the Lord’s doing, my friend. He is stepping into your locked door with his peace and presence. You have felt that, haven’t you?
But more than just his presence in your life, Jesus comes to where you are in your guilt and worry over sin. He removes the fear. Guilt taken away. Worry vanishes. The most despised word in every language is forgiven. The resurrected Christ stands before us. He loves and heals through giving Himself in Word and Sacrament.
What does Easter have to do with the most despised word in every language? Everything. As Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (1 Cor. 15:14) And then this: “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15:17) You are still in your sins. The very resurrection of Christ is the on-going assurance that God declares us free from sin, though we are still sinful.
What we see unfolding today must not become lost on us. Jesus doesn’t enter this locked room and begin a therapy session, “Gather round and state your name.” He doesn’t institute a new command that the church must seek a new vision for its mission.
No! Christ enters. Absolves. And directs them to be about His business. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” He was sent to pay for our sin and overcome the grave for us. We are sent to proclaim that truth to a sinful, dying world. People may very well tire of hearing about their sin but sadly they never tire of sinning. It is purely raw, human arrogance and self-righteousness that dreams of a substitute for the eternal Gospel entrusted to the church.
Sinners need a Savior. And that’s what we are given in Christ. That is the Gospel we are to proclaim. The most despised word in every language – sin – finally and thankfully directs us to the best news that can be shared: Forgiveness and eternal life through our resurrected Christ!
Amen.

April 16, 2017 – Easter                                                         Text:  Luke 24:4-8

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Two summers ago we vacationed in North Carolina.  We rented an SUV and they gave us a larger one than we had requested with all the bells and whistles, including a touch screen GPS.  Now you need to understand I am a Rand McNally Atlas guy.  It’s simple and it doesn’t talk back to you.  On this trip we would occasionally use this new-fangled gizmo, but not well.  It would have an image of our vehicle driving through the grass or right off an exit ramp.  If we had followed this computer’s direction, we might not be here today.  We would be among the dead and not the living.

This morning, in God’s Word, we see a group of women looking for Jesus in a cemetery and an angel asking this ironic question . . .

“WHY DO YOU LOOK FOR THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?”

These women were not confused.  They went to the last place anyone had seen Jesus, the tomb.  When we hear the angel’s question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” the natural answer is “Where else would he be?”

These women had gotten up in love early that Sunday morning because they didn’t want to leave the body of Jesus in the tomb without proper burial preparations.  There were no funeral directors back then.  When they get there nothing is as they imagined.  There is no large stone to move, no Roman guards present, burial clothes on the ground and no body.  That is when two men in shining robes – two angels – appeared and said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!”

Do the words sound like a rebuke?  The angel thought the women should have known better than to come to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus.  Jesus had told his followers many times over and over that he was going to die and rise again.  They failed to grasp what he was saying.

Isn’t that you and I as well?  We’ve been wrong so many times in our lives, especially about spiritual things, that we can understand why the women didn’t grasp the promise.  After all, who comes back from the dead?  At this time in history, life was cheap.  Almost half of all children died before adulthood.  Sure they knew of Lazarus and others that Jesus had raised, but who would raise Jesus?  The point of those miracles was that Jesus had power over life and death.  They should have trusted the promise, but they didn’t.

Jesus says, “I will be with you always.”  Do we take that to heart in our day-to-day struggles?  Jesus says, “I will never give you more than you can handle.”  Do we ever question his promise?  Jesus tells us not to fear death.  Do we live in anticipation of this reality?  Do we look for the living among the dead?

What difference does it make if you look for a name on a mailbox or a tombstone?  Well, you will probably find names in both places, but you can only visit a friend in one of those places.  That is the point of the angels statement, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  Someone might ask, “What difference does it make?”

It makes all the difference.  When our faith is weak and foolish, we look for Jesus in all the wrong places.  Where do we find the Savior?  We find him in the gospel.  We find him in the Word that is taught and preached.  We find him in our baptism, sins washed away.  We find him in Communion, where we receive the actual body and blood of the Lord.

In our sermons for Lent/Easter the theme has been “Ironies of the Passion.”  Things turning out differently than we would expect.  One of the great ironies of my lifetime is the life of Norma McCorvey.  She was Jane Roe of the famous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.  Do you know that her baby was never aborted?  That baby lived.  In the 1990’s Norma worked in an abortion clinic in Dallas.  In that same building was a pro-life clinic helping young women.  Norma met a young lady there who invited her to church and Norma became a Christian.  She fought the rest of her life to overturn the decision that involved her.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair was a famous atheist who fought to get prayer out of schools and founded the American Atheists organization.  Do you know that one her sons is a Christian?  The world would call these two situations – ironic.  I would call it the power of God as He works through His means.

That ultimate power is on display today – the tomb is empty!  He is not here.  He has risen just as he said he would.  No atlas or GPS will find his grave because it doesn’t exist.  Jesus is living and that means all our sins are wiped out and forgotten.  Jesus is living and that promises that we will live with him forever.  Jesus is living and we will see our loved ones who died in the faith again.

“Christ has triumphed, He is living!”  Then they remembered his words.  Blessed Easter!

Amen.