Allen Lunneberg

 

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Text: John 17:11b-19
Date: Easter VII + 5/24/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

On the night in which He was betrayed our Lord Jesus prayed for His disciples. He prayed for the original twelve who were soon to experience the most horrific series of events leading to His crucifixion, death and burial. He was going to leave them and they were going to face danger. He also prayed for you that night. For you are among those He said “will believe in me through their word” (Jn. 17:20). We too are tempted at times to wonder if God has left us alone. We too face days that threaten both our spiritual and our physical safety. Though we are cleansed and reclaimed as sons and daughters of God by baptism, sin still so easily besets us, and death threatens sometimes behind the scenes, but ultimately at center stage, in your face. For you Jesus prayed and promised You Are Not Alone. (more…)

 

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Text: John 15:9-17
Date: Easter VI + 5/17/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

You’ve heard the comment, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?” Not everyone with whom you happen to be acquainted would you classify as a friend. A friend is someone from among your acquaintances who cares about you and demonstrates loyalty to you; and someone to whom you feel responsible to care about in return. With how many people are you acquainted? How many among them do you count as friends? How many people call you their friend? A very few people, maybe even only one, you may call your “best” friend. If you’ve been around long enough you may have found that the identity of your “best” friend may have changed at different times in your life. Today we hear our Lord Jesus call us, his followers, his friends. By faith in Him, He is saying, our relationship with God has changed from enemies into friends. Our text today speaks of both the privileges we enjoy as friends of God and the responsibilities we have because of that heavenly friendship. (more…)

 

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Text: John 15:1-8
Date: Easter V + 5/10/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

When asked if he understood what he was reading the Ethiopian eunuch answered Philip honestly, asking, “How can I [understand], unless someone guides me?” And this has been a theme in our Easter season scripture readings, namely, the opening of a believer’s mind (Luke 24:45) by God to understand the Bible. It’s not that you cannot understand it to a certain extent since it is all composed of words you already know. The Ethiopian could understand the passage he was reading from the book of Isaiah was about someone who suffered unjustly to the point of death. The question is the identity of this suffering servant. “‘About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:34-35). Jesus is the key to truly understanding the Bible. In one way or another it is, finally, all about Him. Reject Jesus and you miss the heart and real message of the Bible. (more…)

 

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Text: John 10:11-18
Date: Easter IV + 5/3/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Every year during the Easter season the Fourth Sunday after Easter is designated “Good Shepherd” Sunday on which we hear a reading from the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel where he records Jesus’ words telling of Himself and His relation to His believers using the “figure of speech” (Jn. 10:6) of a sheepfold and a shepherd, saying, “I am the good shepherd.” The Psalm for the day, every year, is the beloved Psalm 23 reminding us that the metaphor of sheep is used throughout the Bible to describe God’s people and His continual loving care for them. You may have come here today questioning God’s promised love and care for you, or at least have had some days of questioning in the past. St. John tells us that when Jesus first spoke these words nobody understood what he was saying (John 10:6). It is only in light of Easter, of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, that we can begin to understand, believe and take comfort in these words. (more…)

 

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Text: Luke 24:36-49
Date: Easter III + 4/26/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

On Easter Sunday this year we heard the good news of the resurrection from St. Mark. Last week, the second Sunday of Easter, we heard St. John’s account of the risen Lord’s appearances to His fearful disciples and especially to Thomas. On this, the third Sunday of Easter, we hear from St. Luke’s perspective many of the same things—the Lord’s greeting of peace, the disciples’ fear and doubt, the Savior’s invitation to touch Him. But Luke includes this, that though the resurrected body of our Lord does not need food, He, nevertheless, eats a piece of fish before them as further proof that it is He with His 100% human body intact. (more…)

 

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Text: John 20:19-31
Date: Easter II + 4/19/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Every year on the Second Sunday of Easter we hear St. John’s account of two appearances of the risen Lord to his disciples, the first “on the evening of that day” (Easter Sunday), and the second a week later. A central figure is the Apostle Thomas who was absent for the first appearance, spent the whole next week not just “doubting” but refusing to believe that the Lord had risen unless he could see him with his own eyes, and then was present to receive a direct appearance “eight days later.” This year, I would suggest the following outline for our consideration of this text under the theme, “Real Peace.” First, the Peace of Christ is in the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God he provided by his sacrifice on the Cross, now vindicated in his bodily resurrection. Second, the Peace of Christ is by way of faith in him. And, thirdly, this faith comes to us by way of the means of grace administered by Christ’s chosen ministers in the Office of the Ministry. (more…)

 

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Text: Mark 16:7
Date: Easter + 4/12/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

This is Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the central and most important doctrine, for without it there would be nothing to believe, nothing to hope for, nothing of any real help to our daily lives surrounded by sin, separation and death. But because Christ is risen there is faith, there is hope and there is love to be found, to be had, to be preached and to be learned and believed both for our eternal destiny beyond death as well as for this puzzle we call life. Easter! Though the world around us languishes in the darkness and shroud of hopelessness, hatred and death, for us this is the day the Lord has made. For us Easter is a matter of life and death. And today we proclaim for all the world to hear, Life wins out. (more…)

Text: John 17:1-11
Date: Easter VII + 5/4/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

I’m always fascinated by this Sunday between the celebration of our Lord’s Ascension and the Day of Pentecost. For these are the ten days that the first disciples waited in Jerusalem as the Lord commanded them, telling them to “wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4-5). For today we see the infant Church in almost our exact situation. For as of today, look at where we’ve been since those first days of Advent and Christmas. We have traced and retold almost the entire story of the Gospel, that is, the earthly ministry of Jesus, beginning with His incarnation and birth, then in the Epiphany season a brief glimpse of His teaching, preaching and healing ministry, then the forty days in Lent were a sort of catechism instruction preparing us not only to hear and to celebrate but to participate in the most central event of the Gospel, the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ during Holy Week. Since that joyous Easter Day we recall the 40 days of our risen Lord appearing to his disciples and, this last Thursday, His glorious Ascension into heaven. We have retold almost the entire story of the Gospel. Almost! There’s just this one more thing. So today we join the first disciples and wait. It’s like everyone lined up at the starting line of the Church’s mission: “On your mark…get set….” We’re just waiting for the starting gun to fire, the green light, the bell to ring and the starting gates to fly open, the command to “Go!”

When you think about it, that’s sort of our feeling as the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word. You’ve been through what may feel like a number of beginnings as a congregation, each one with its own dramatic twists and turns, some advances, some setbacks, but you still feel like you’re only at the starting line; “Get ready, get set….” All we want is a clear signal to “Go,” to get moving forward. (more…)

Text: John 14:15-21
Date: Easter VI + 4/27/06
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

With minds opened by our Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead to understand the Scriptures and everything He has said and commanded, we continue to recall His words on that night when He was betrayed, that Holy Passover Thursday when He washed His disciples feet, predicted His betrayal and denials, and comforted our hearts with His words. He said, “Let not your hearts be troubled” and told us of His going away to the cross and now to the Father to prepare a place for us, and that he would come back to take us to Himself, “that where I am you may be also.”

Don’t miss the significance of that promise. For this is the meaning of the title “Immanuel,” God with us, and of our Lord’s entire mission. He came to this earth, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, to be “God with us,” to draw us to Himself and to His Father, to heal the breach of sin that separated us from God and from each other. He was Immanuel, God with us, all the way up to the cross where only He could go for us. Yet, having endured the shame of the cross where He died as the vicarious atonement, the one sin-offering that takes away the sin of the world, He came back from the grave; God with us again. As He would go to prepare a place for us and to rule the whole universe for the sake of His Church, He promised to return as God with us to take us to be with Him in the new, eternal mansions of the new, eternal creation. Yet even now, after He has ascended and before His promised return He does not leave us alone, but sends His Holy Spirit, with and in Whom He has also promised us, “I am with you always to the close of the age;” Immanuel, God with us, and God for us.

In this time of waiting, this time of “in-betweenity,” between His leaving us visibly and His promised visible return, He helps us to live as His new creation, disciples who carry and live and proclaim the Good News, the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all the world. In that living and proclaiming, we remember these words He spoke to us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” and “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (more…)

We Follow and Rejoice

Text: John 10:1-10
Date: Easter IV + 4/13/08

As when a shepherd calls his sheep,
They know and heed his voice;
So when You call Your fam’ly, Lord,
We follow and rejoice.

Once when Jesus was in Jerusalem during the feast of tabernacles he spoke of himself using the two metaphors, “I am the good shepherd” and “I am the door of the sheep.” St. John tells us, “This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them” (10:6). Now, on the other side of Good Friday and Easter, the Lord opens the minds of his disciples to understand the Scriptures, to believe the Gospel and to live in its light. Now, as our living Lord, risen from the dead, we see what he meant when he said that “he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep,” how he entered by the door in order to become the door, and where he leads his sheep. He entered through the door of the Scriptures as the promised Messiah of Israel to lead His sheep out of the temple of the Old Covenant to the green pastures of the New Testament in His blood (Lk. 22:20).

Psalm 23 in the Old Testament has been a favorite psalm and has provided much comfort especially at Christian funerals. It speaks of the Lord as a shepherd leading his sheep, his people, out into the open green pastures, beside quiet waters on paths of righteousness. It speaks of the life of faith in this world where sin still collects its wages as a journey that involves a short walk down hill through the valley of the shadow of death. Yet the sheep fear no evil because the shepherd is there, his rod shooing away threatening wolves and his staff there to drag us back from the precipice of any danger. Then there is the strange yet beautiful image of the Lord himself preparing a feast out there in the wilderness. After all of this, however, the destination of the flock in Psalm 23 is found when the shepherd leads them back to the temple—“and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23 is about God’s care and protection of and provision for his people, and how their true home is where He is and promises to be, namely, in the Jerusalem temple.

Now, however, when the true and chief Shepherd of souls comes on the scene, while the comforting images are the same, the only difference is where He now leads His flock. (more…)

 

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     Our Easter celebration continues. For the last 43 days we have rejoiced that the “little while” of our Lord’s departure by way of the cruel cross and the cold tomb ended in the bright warmth of His bodily resurrection on but only the third day. And we have rejoiced in his eleven recorded appearances to the first disciples for some forty days thereafter. But now He has ascended into heaven. He has returned to the Father. And it is starting to get rather lonely again. Oh, don’t get me wrong. For we, with the first disciples, remember His words, His promise that He would send the Holy Spirit and in this way He would be with us forever. He said it on that last Holy Thursday night, remember? “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” [John 15:26]. He said it just before He ascended, remember? He told us not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father” which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now…. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses” [Acts 1:4-5, 8]. This Sunday we once again imitate the actual passage of time of the Biblical event as we gather on this day between our Lord’s Ascension last Thursday and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit ten days later, next Sunday on the Day of Pentecost. This gives us an opportunity to understand what has happened to us thus far and to be prepared for what will happen to us in the future; to understand the identity of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and His purpose, what He does.

      In our short Gospel text Jesus speaks of two things: first, the Holy Spirit, and then the opposition and even persecution experienced by Christians who confess and preach the gospel to the world. It is God Himself, the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, Who leads us to an ever-deepening knowledge of the Gospel truth and gives us the divine strength needed to enable us to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the kingdom. (more…)