May 26, 2022 – Ascension                        Text:  Ephesians 1:15-23

Dear Friends in Christ,

    No intelligent preacher would ever start a sermon with a four-letter word.  Well, this one is going to.  Hold on to your pew.  That word is h-o-p-e.  Hope.  Do you think that doesn’t count?   Sure it does as hope has four letters.  When I said four-letter word, you were thinking something else.  My family was confident it wouldn’t be one of those four-letter words because I have never used one in my marriage.  In our world to talk about hope is like burping in public.  Everything seems so bad; can we really have hope?  Can we talk about hope when our world is depressed and hateful and spiteful and worn down and sees no end to their troubles?  Is it possible to have lives based in hope?

“WHERE IS THE HOPE?”

    We need hope.  Hope is not the same word as optimism.  It is tied to action, not attitude.  The late British Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his book Celebrating Life, pointed out that optimism is passive while hope is active.  Optimism is having a gym membership.  Hope is going jogging every morning.

    Despair would be the opposite of hope.  It leads to laziness and guilt and fear.  Despair wants to stay in bed all day.  Why face the day if I have no hope?  Luther wrote this in his Small Catechism on the meaning of the 6th petition of the Lord’s Prayer – “lead us not into temptation.”  We are asking that the Lord would “guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.”

    When we have hope it is easier to move through the day, look to the future.  Without hope, everything just grinds to a halt.  Where to find true hope?

    False hope is no hope.  Think of the religious cults who lied to their people about the world ending.  They sold all their goods got ready and…life continued.  If people have false hope, in say a miracle cure, and it doesn’t work it can lead to bitterness, disillusionment.  People may even rebel against God.  False hope leads to despair.

    The Apostle Paul ties real hope to Jesus, specifically His ascension.  Because God has raised Jesus “from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.” (v. 20)  That right there gives us real hope for our future.

    Jesus is not gone.  He has been promoted and we get to go along.  Christ is the Head, we are the members of his body, the Church.  If all things are under his feet, it means they are under ours as well.

    Christ has called us.  He has given us “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (v. 18). Because of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension our sins are forgiven, and we inherit a portion of his riches by grace.  

    Because of Christ’s ascension He is with all of us.  We can live lives of hope of being in His presence forever.  It would be easy to despair.  The world likes to do that to people.  “There will be no more gas or electricity!”  “How many more years before the North or South Pole flood your living room?”  “Covid may be controlled but what’s next?”  Should you even leave your house?  The market for hope is one big open area.

    Don’t buy the false hope some are selling.  You and I know the only answer is found in Jesus.  God cared enough about you to send His Son to redeem you.  You know that the Son was crucified, died, rose, and has now ascended to the right hand of God the Father.  You know that He rules over all things, and He has promised to be with you always.  He is not gone.  He is here in his Word.  He is here in His Sacraments.  He is here among His people.  That gives you and I hope for the days ahead.

    The Church has many great festival days that we love.  Christmas and Easter and Pentecost and All Saints.  Ascension is unique and not just because we celebrate it on a Thursday.  The central message is the hope message.  It centers our faith, strengthens us for what lies ahead, and give us the promise of a better future.

    Christ ascended to ensure us of our eternal place with Him.  That is our hope.

                                                Amen.         

May 15, 2022                                          Text:  Revelation 21:1-7

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Valerius Maximus was a Roman author/historian, perhaps best known for his work “Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings” dated around 30 A.D.  He stated, “The divine wrath is slow indeed in vengeance, but it makes up for its tardiness by the severity of the punishment.”

    Life can be very, very frustrating – isn’t it?  The reality of so many senators voting to kill the unborn, goods and services that cannot be obtained, prices that continue to climb, people in high positions who abuse their power and live in an alternate reality.  None of it is lost on us.  But then, neither are your sin crimes and my sin crimes.  Valerius Maximus’ insight is accurate:  “the divine wrath…makes up for its tardiness by the severity of the punishment.”  More importantly, God said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” (Rom. 12:9)

    What a blessing to know the love of God in Christ, right?  Especially when we face our final moments.  Jesus is the only One who can lift us beyond the dread and fear of death.  The question for this morning . . .

“WHAT IS IT WORTH TO US?”

    The religions of our world all say the same thing:  Man is either basically good enough or capable enough to deserve or earn God’s love.  Is there any truth in that?  If we could truly earn God’s love, at minimum, we would never think the things we want no one else to know…or see!  

    God is love and we cannot earn, nor do we deserve His love.  He felt sorry for you and me.  Pity.  Mercy.  It was my sins and your sins that caused Him to love us so much that would suffer and die for those horrible things we are capable of.

    One of the saddest conversations you can have with a person is when you ask them what is going to happen to them when they die?  Their answer, “nothing.”  Which is a bold answer while the heart is still beating and the lungs still breathing.  

    Why has humanity spent untold money, time, effort, and persecution of those who follow Christ to disprove Christ’s credibility?  That right there proves something.  Why fight so hard to discredit something you don’t believe in?  Because even the unbelievers know the Scripture just like the devil in the desert with Jesus.  “He will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41)

    We’ve been spared this.  Though we struggle daily with our sin, for the sake of Christ we have forgiveness.  That’s the promise.  “…the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 Jn. 1:7b). “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 6:23). We will go into eternal heaven – uninterrupted happiness.  All assured us now through Word and Sacrament.

    Frank Wilson wrote this, “In early times of persecution acts of spiritual heroism occurred in many communities.  Christians would see one of their own give up his life for his faith, and they would feel proud of such an example of staunch fortitude…They did not mourn their dead, but rejoiced over them because their departure out of this world was the occasion of the new birth in the world-to-come…”

    When we read these stories of Christian martyrdom we come away thinking:  “what a witness.”  The ultimate offering.  But I confess along with you that the best most of us have given up for the faith is a small percentage of coin and time.  

    Here we are then.  Sinful humans, covered in the blood of Jesus Christ.  Living with promises of Christ’s presence in Word and Sacrament, looking forward to the New Heaven and the New Earth.  The words of John always preparing us:

    “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” (v. 1-4)

    Haven’t we all been confronted with death?  Shed tears for those we love.  Felt the pain of a broken heart or broken body?  Because of God’s love in Christ that will be taken away forever.

    Listen to this written some time ago:  “He calls us not to be deceived into thinking that the goal of our faith here is the highest degree of comfort and happiness…but to understand the people who hated his Son – marched Him to the cross for preaching the truth about human sin – crucified Him and his Apostles – and have persecuted the church through the centuries – those people and that mind-set are as much a part of our time as ever before.”

    We have been given everything in Christ.  His presence now and his eternal promise of heaven.  What a blessing to confess with the saints:  “I am going to heaven when my pilgrimage here is finished.”  It’s a fair question – What Is It Worth To Us – God’s eternal love in Christ.  What is it worth – to you?                                        Amen.