A Blog of Sermons, Devotional Thought, Religious Topics, and Just fun information and thoughts from Rev. Keith GeRue
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
Between Girard and Virden Illinois
Holy Trinity Sunday Numbers 35:9–30; Luke 24:28–53; Acts 1:1—7:60
June 8Proverbs 5:1–23; John 12:20–36a
June 9Prov 8:1–21; John 12:36b–50
June 10Prov 8:22–36; John 13:1–20
June 11 (St Barnabas)Prov 9:1–18; John 13:21–38
June 12Prov 10:1–23; John 14:1–17
June 13Prov 13:1–25; John 14:18–31
NEXT WEEKS LESSONS: The First Sunday after trinity
When the beggar Lazarus died, he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. For he was truly Abraham’s seed. He believed in the Lord, and the Lord “accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:1–6). The name Lazarus means “God is my help.” The unnamed rich man, on the other hand, did not love and trust in God. For he evidently cared little for the beggar at his gate. And “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:16–21). He who loved and trusted in possessions and prestige died and was in torments in Hades (Luke 16:19–31). Repentance and faith are worked only through Moses and the prophets—that is, the Word of God, for it points us to Christ. Through His death and resurrection, we are brought to the comfort of life everlasting.
The Festival of the Most Holy Trinity (June 6 – 7, 2009) John 3:1-17 “The Depth of the Riches of God”
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Our text for is from the Gospel lesson just read from John chapter 3 as follows: Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
As many of you know, I am an Army Chaplain, along with serving this Parish. This brings me into contact with people from all walks of life, and from various educational backgrounds. It is there which really teach me where people in our world are at when it comes to religion and God. There are some Lutherans, some Roman Catholics, and many Pentecostals or Baptists tossed in to keep things interesting.
One of the first things I often do is talk about God and about Christianity. What is at the heart of the Christian faith? What does it mean to be a Christian? Inevitably, regardless whether the person is Roman Catholic or Lutheran, Baptist or Methodist or nothing at all, they almost without fail will say something along the lines of “Being a Christian means living a good life,” or something like that. Faith, for them, is basically about works and doing good things. Now these are intelligent people, often they are very faithful in attending their church. Yet they most often do not understand this very basic element of the Christian faith: The Christian faith is about Christ, what He did for you on the cross, and what He does for you now by creating faith through His Word and Sacraments. They don’t understand it. So for them, very often, the Bible is a closed book, and the Church is not a place of love and peace, but it is a place of guilt and heartache. They don’t get it.
This is basically where Nicodemus is in our text. He was a teacher of Israel and a wise man by everyone’s standards. But Jesus says to him that he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless He is born again. Now that word again there has a double meaning in the original Greek. It can also mean from above. So hear the text again: Unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
This is a hard lesson for our friend Nicodemus. How much choice did you have in your birth? Did your parents consult you on when you would be born, what your name would be, or what kind of hospital you would be born in? I doubt it very much. Birth is a gift you receive from your parents. You don’t really have a lot of option in the matter. And it is better that way, because when you were born, you really didn’t have a lot to contribute. What did you know about being born? Not very much.
But it is right here that Nicodemus stumbles. He had gone to church his whole life. He had studied the Scriptures. He was smart and successful. He was a leader of the Jewish people. It galled him to think that he had nothing to contribute to his salvation and the kingdom of God. He just couldn’t understand this concept of the gift of God.
This is what you and I don’t understand by nature, either. When it comes right down to it, we just want to do something. It can’t be that easy. God can’t simply forgive my sins for Jesus’ sake. There must be something I have to do! But there isn’t. For as long as you are trying to do it yourself, you are lost and condemned. You must be born from above. You cannot do it yourself. Perhaps St. Paul expressed it best in our Epistle lesson: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
“For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?”(Romans 11:33-35) Anytime you try to second guess God or think that you have it figured out beyond what He has given to you in the Scriptures, any time you try to do that, you are getting sucked back into the Law and living in the old way. This is why our text also speaks so much about Baptism, because Baptism teaches you that it is not about you, it is about what God gives you by faith. As Jesus said: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Does it sound too easy? Well, I guess in one way it is. It is so easy to rest on the mercies of God. God is who He is, and He delights in giving you forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. That is His nature and His gift by grace.
But in another sense it is hard, very hard. It is very hard because if you live by faith and not by sight, you will be criticized and maligned your whole life. It’s the truth. The Christian who lives by faith and not by works is a mystery to the world, just as much as the Holy Trinity is a mystery to the world. How can you live as though your sins don’t matter? Well, they matter a great deal. They matter so much that Jesus had to die on the cross to pay the penalty for those sins. But Jesus has paid that penalty. I don’t have to pay it again. The world can never truly understand that way of thinking.
Today (Yesterday) is the day when our country remembers her fallen heroes, those men and women who fought at Normandy to defend our country and its freedom. D Day is what we call it, and this is appropriate. These men and women sacrificed their lives so that we might be free. We should honor and remember them. There are many comrades and people that grieve over the loss of their loved ones and friends in battle. Maybe some of you know that grief and understand it. Their sacrifice has been great. But perhaps that sacrifice can serve for us as a reminder of that one Great Sacrifice which God Himself made on our behalf, when He offered up His only-begotten Son for the sins of the world.
To Nicodemus, Jesus said that you must be born from above. To you He says the same. And your birth from above happened when you were baptized, and that great sacrifice which our Lord made came over you in the waters of life. God loved the world so much that He gave His Son over to death, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Everyone. That means my soldiers. That means your neighbors, even the ones you don’t like. That means your family, your friends, your enemies. And most of all, that means you. For God so loved you that He gave Jesus to you so that you will not die, but live forever in His great eternal presence. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Holy Trinity SundayIsaiah 6:1–7; Romans 11:33–36; John 3:1–17
NEXT WEEKS LESSONS: The Feast of the Holy Trinity
When Isaiah beheld the glory of the Lord, he cried out “Woe is me!” For the sinner cannot stand in the presence of a holy God and live (Is 6:1–7). But God the Father lifted up His Son Jesus for us on the cross, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:1–15). This eternal life of Christ is given us according to the Holy Spirit’s good pleasure in Baptism. “Unless one is born (again) of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” To sinners in fear of death, the messengers of God place on our lips the living body and blood of Christ and speak His words of absolution, “Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” Having received forgiveness and life from the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit, we join with the angels in praising the blessed Trinity, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom 11:33–36).
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. There are some who would say that we Lutherans don't pay enough attention to the Holy Spirit. We're always talking about Jesus and what He said and did, and the Holy Spirit barely gets a mention. Shouldn't He get equal time? Shouldn't we be talking more about the power of the Spirit in our lives? Well stop and think about that question. What specifically is the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Romans 1 answers that question when it says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” The power of the Holy Spirit is not just some generic force to make things happen or to make us better people. It is the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins in Christ the crucified. That's when the power of the Holy Spirit is being exercised, when that Gospel is being proclaimed, bringing people to faith in Christ and sustaining them in the faith. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also new life and salvation.
So the truth of the matter is that whenever Christ is being preached, you can be sure that the Holy Spirit is present doing His work. Jesus said in John 16, “The Holy Spirit will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” And in today's Gospel our Lord said, “The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” So you see, the Holy Spirit's ministry is all about Jesus. The Spirit's job is not to be center stage Himself, but to bring glory to Christ. In fact, if you're hearing a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit just by Himself, or about healings and speaking in tongues and the Spirit's power in your life apart from Christ, that actually frustrates the work of the Holy Spirit. For He is the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son and who is one with them in God's purpose of bringing life to the world.
The events of Pentecost serve to make this point. For when all is said and done, what are the main things that happened on Pentecost Day? Well if you read all the way through the 2nd chapter of Acts, you'll see that the Gospel of Christ was preached, people were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and the believers gathered together for the liturgy of the Lord's Supper, the breaking of the bread. There were other wonderful, miraculous things about Pentecost Day which God gave on this unique and special occasion. But the key thing about this day is that the Holy Spirit was poured out to deliver the gifts of Christ.
The first thing to notice about this event is that the believers were all gathered together in one place. It was the 3rd hour of the day, 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning. That's where the Spirit came, to that gathering, which is a reminder of the verse in Hebrews 10, “Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the [Last] Day approaching.”
There were two signs which accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit among this little band of Jesus' followers. The first was the sound of a rushing mighty wind. This wind was the breath of God, breathing His Spirit and His life into His Church. It is reminiscent of how Adam was created. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living being. In the same way the Holy Spirit is the breath of life and the soul of the body which is the Church. This rushing wind is also reminiscent of how God caused a wind to blow over the waters after the flood, drying the land and bringing about a new creation. In the same way, the Spirit blows across the waters of baptism to make us a new creation in Christ.
The second sign was the tongues of fire that came to rest upon the disciples. As in the burning bush where God spoke to Moses, as in the pillar of fire that led the children of Israel in the wilderness, so also here, the fire shows that the Spirit of God, the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity, is present for and with His people to lead and guide them.
And, of course, there's a little play on words here: there were tongues of fire, and they were able to speak with other tongues. The fiery presence of the Holy Spirit made them able to talk in other languages which they had not learned before this. And please note that these were known languages in the world of that day. Sometimes, when so-called Pentecostals talk about speaking in tongues-like those in the Assembly of God-they're generally not talking about any language that would be understood today, just ecstatic babbling. And that's not what's going on here. The Holy Spirit gave the disciples the ability to speak in tongues so that the visitors who were there in the city from all over the world could hear the Word of Christ in their own native language. This gift was given for the sake of the Gospel! The people who heard this said, “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” Through this miracle, the Holy Spirit was saying to the people, “Jesus is for you. He is for all nations and languages. He died for everyone; He is your Savior from sin. You can be sure of it because you are hearing it in your heart language, your own mother tongue.”
The same is true for us gathered here today. The word of forgiveness, won by a man who spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, preached by apostles who spoke Greek, confessed by much of the church in Latin, translated by Luther into German, has come to you in your own language, in the English tongue. That's God's gift to you. There's no more personal way of saying that Jesus is your Savior than to say it in your own language. The Gospel of Christ is for you. That's what it means to be truly Pentecostal.
Of course, the very fact that there are all these languages in the world is a reminder of why Jesus had to come and die in the first place. God caused the confusion of languages at Babel because of our self-exalting sin. In order to humble people like us, who want to make a name for ourselves, who aren't content with what we were created to be, God scatters us. The confusion of languages is an illustration of what our sin does. It separates us from others, and most of all, it separates us from God. The language barrier that exists-even among those of the same tongue, even in our own homes and relationships-that is a sign of the barrier that cuts us off from God and the life He created us to have.
However, you can surely see that Pentecost is the reversal of Babel. Whereas Babel caused the people to be scattered, at Pentecost all the people of various languages are brought together in Christ. Even as Jesus was crucified with the accusation above His head written in three different languages, so He redeemed all those of every nation and tribe and people and language, releasing them from their sins by His precious blood. He has broken down the barrier of sin and pulverized it beneath His feet. He has put us right with God the Father by His holy death. And so He has also put us right again with one another. The walls of hurt and division which separate us are overcome by His mercy and forgiveness. The risen Jesus sends out His Spirit to draw us together and make us one in Himself. No tower, no human achievement can truly unite us and lift us up to the heavens. Only Jesus can do that. And the Holy Spirit has come to proclaim that to the world.
Now there were those on Pentecost who rejected the Holy Spirit, who mocked the disciples speaking in other tongues, and said, “They are full of new wine.” And yet those mockers were actually more correct than they realized. For Jesus had once said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins . . . But new wine must be put into new wineskins.” The wine of the old testament was poured from the old wineskins of the prophets. But now in these latter days of the new testament, the apostles are the new wineskins. For Christ Himself is the great grape cluster who was crushed in His suffering and passion, that He might bring forth the wine of the Spirit. Here indeed, then, the apostles are filled with this new wine of the Holy Spirit, that they might bring life and joy to the nations. It is written of the days of the Messiah that “the mountains shall drip with new wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” Here we see the beginning of those days, days in which we still live.
Truly, the prophesy of Joel is still coming to pass, where God says, “On My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.” To prophesy here simply means to speak and confess the word of God. It is what we are doing here today in the liturgy, as we speak and sing and confess the words of God given us by the Holy Spirit. You are the Lord's menservants and maidservants, for God's Spirit was quite literally poured out on you in your baptism. You are the ones gathered by the Spirit around the altar as one body; for there you receive the true body of Christ. You are those who look for the coming of great and awesome day of the Lord, who call on the name of the Lord and shall be saved. For no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
So then, keep and hold on to Jesus' Word. For it comes from the Father and is filled with the Holy Spirit. Through this Word the Holy Trinity comes to you and makes their home with you. By this Word you have peace that the world cannot give, the everlasting peace of Christ. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
ExaudiJohn 15:26-16:4May 23 – 24, 2009 "Your Mother, The Church!"
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here, in part, is what St. Peter heard in the upper room: “The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor Me.” Here, in part, is what St. Peter passed on to his children: “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” Legend holds that the fiery trial, the not-so-strange thing, that killed Peter was that he was offered in service to pagan gods, to whom he would not bow down and pray. Little did those murderers know, since they did not know Jesus and thereby the Father, that their god was, in fact, the devil. But such brutality, such scathing hatred and ignorance, serves the backward-seeming Kingdom of God, where the poor, the mourning, the meek, and the hungry are blessed, where suffering exhibits acceptance, where fiery trials of persecution and being killed for the Truth is not strange, where the Victor wins by defeat and Life overcomes by death.
Can you imagine some backstabbing betrayer, some milk toast bureaucrat, sitting in the crowds watching Peter’s martyrdom saying, “Well, it really is a shame, but he brought it on himself. He should have been more winsome, more tolerant, nicer, gentler, kinder. He should have been more like me: confessional and successful.” Well, He probably did some dumb things. After all, he was a man like us. He was not perfect. But He had before denied our Lord at the home of the high priest. He had felt the burden of the Law. He could not again deny the One who died for him, by tolerating prayers to Caesar! By the grace of God in Christ he would not compromise the truth. His death was not a disgrace, shameful, or a failure. The Spirit of Truth was upon him, guiding him into the way of the cross, purifying his faith in the glorious, tortuous flames of martyrdom. What they meant for evil, God used for good, for Peter’s good, and for the Church’s good. His Holy Mother, the Church, was pleased and thankful for her son.
“What would your mother think?” is a pretty good litmus test for ethics and morality. When you teach 7th and 8th graders the 6th commandment, that is the one about marriage, adultery, fornication, God-given sexual identity, living together, and the like, they always want to know how far they can go, how much kissing, touching, and hugging is appropriate. I tell them that they should not do anything that they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, do in their mother’s presence. They know that means a pretty chaste, clean, quick kiss. And if there is a way to make adolescents squirm in their chairs, that’s it. It conflicts their desire to please the flesh with their desire to please their mothers. Mothers are law-givers, guilt-producers, rule-makers. But they are also providers, protectors, nourishers, and lovers.
In reading about slavery in the American South, no abuse makes me so sad as the accounts of selling children away from their mothers. Christian men justified those acts by misreading the Bible, by Theologizing. It was convenient, expedient, seemingly necessary for the economy, for prosperity. It was the modern rage, the latest scholarship, the foundation upon which America was built. It was the American way. For their own gain men turned their backs on the obvious moral truth. Their churches made bland, neutral statements to condone it. And as sad as the forced separation of mother and child is, nothing is so sad as a mother gone bad, as a mother who fears her children or promotes herself by lying to and using them. Mothers who abuse their children and attempt to buy them back between fits of rage with gifts, candy, and lies are the most heartbreaking cases. Adult children learn to distance themselves, but not youth. They do not have the emotional equipment. Like flies to the flame, they return again and again. They want nothing so bad in this life as their mothers to love them, as their mothers should.
Even as adults, our desires for this life are pretty simple, though we often can’t see them for the clutter of our entertainment pursuits, our endless quest to banish boredom. All we want is: our beloved to love us; our children to outlive us; men to respect us. That really is it. And in that order. When those things are stripped away, by tragedy, malice, or guilt, then we see what matters in life. When your wife walks out on you, all of the sudden it is abundantly clear that motorcycles, sky diving, and bar hopping with your buddies are not nearly so much fun as drying the dishes with your beloved at your side. A good mother disciplines her children. She strives to teach them to appreciate and treasure the things that matter in this live, so that they won’t lose them by their own foolish misdeeds.
In these last weeks of Easter, the Church, our Holy Mother, would have us know the Theology of the Cross. She strives to teach us so that we not be scandalized by the hardships of true pilgrims traveling in this foreign land. She doesn’t want us to loose the only thing that really matters by our own foolish misdeeds. So following our remembrance of the Ascension, where the Second Person of the Holy Trinity returned to His Father as a Man, as one of us, exalting our nature, opening up heaven for us, She draws our attention to the fact that always before glory comes the cross. “Don’t think it strange,” she says, “that you must suffer fiery trials and the world’s scorn. Don’t think it strange that you fail to draw the crowds of a Taylor Swift concert or have the following of mildly pornographic television drama or sitcom. Don’t think it strange that you are brutalized by false priests and mocked and ridiculed for desiring and even insisting upon pure doctrine and practice. Don’t think your Mother, for all Her discipline, does not love you. She knows when you need the piercing Law instead of sweet Gospel. Though it pains Her, She gives you, She teaches, what is best, what you need. That you would be prepared for what must come. And your failure to please the world is no shame or embarrassment to Her, but the mark of Her true children.” And so it is that still today God allows the violence of the world to overcome His children. They are persecuted for not joining in with the world’s mad lust and games. They are tortured and ridiculed, threatened and cajoled for teaching the Truth. And some martyrs bleed on the inside. At times God allows this cruel world to even strip away our greatest desires - our spouses, our children, our friends. He drives us ever closer to Himself. And in the end, we will see that He never took anything from us. He only removed it for a time that we would not be distracted from the one thing needful, from His perfect, sacrificial love that has saved us. His discipline is harsh, but necessary. He prepares us through suffering, through fiery trials, so that we will not fail the final test.
Thank God for mothers who pray for their children, who bring them early to the life giving waters of Holy Baptism for birth from above, who read to them from the Holy Scriptures. Thank God for the love that caused His Incarnation, His martyrdom at Pilate’s hands on a cross of shame, His glorious resurrection out of death, and His ascension to the Father for us. Thank God for the free grace that has washed away all our sins, our shame and regrets, for the constant, steadfast care of God that keeps us in this faith. Thank God for providing for us the Church as Mother, where He provides for us, feeds us, speaks to us with words that death cannot remove. May She ever be praised.
