Month: May 2015

Posted on

What Wisdom Cannot Bear

Text: John 3:1-17
Date: The Holy Trinity + 5/31/15

At first glance the scripture readings appointed for the Sunday of The Holy Trinity don’t seem to have much to say about that doctrine. So I decided to go to Martin Luther to see how he handled today’s Gospel. To my surprise I discovered he had the exact same question as I, beginning his sermon, saying, “I don’t know why this Gospel lesson was selected to be read on this Trinity Sunday, for it really doesn’t deal with the subject of Trinity.”[1] You don’t see a specific reference to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Rather you have an example of how beyond all understanding is not only this doctrine but any and all spiritual things. Continue reading “What Wisdom Cannot Bear”

Posted on

The Promised Spirit Guide

Date: The Day of Pentecost + 5/24/15
Text: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Hail thee, festival day!
Blest day to be hallowed forever;
Day when the Holy Ghost
Shone in the world with His grace. (LSB 489)

On this festival day the Holy Church Throughout the World receives power, the power to be witnesses of Jesus, the Lord and God and King of the universe. It happened in a dramatic way on that fiftieth day after the Lord’s resurrection. The first disciples needed miraculous outward signs and days of peace in order for them to understand the meaning of Jesus’ final words to them, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20), and, “You will receive power…and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Continue reading “The Promised Spirit Guide”

Posted on

Seated at the Right Hand

Text: John 17:11b-19
Date: Easter VII + 5/17/15 (5/17/15 Palindrome!)

Today is the great Sunday of transition. It is the third day after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven and the eighth day before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It is a day of questioning and wondering with the first disciples, “What are we to do now that Jesus is gone?” It is a day to mark the replacement of the apostle Judas (who we are to discover never really was an apostle but an apostate!) with the apostle Matthias. On this day we consider more deeply what was in Jesus’ heart and “high priestly prayer” on the night in which He was betrayed for the future of us, His disciples, in a world that will increasingly hate us. Continue reading “Seated at the Right Hand”

Posted on

The Law of Love

Text: John 15:9-17
Date: Easter VI + Mother’s Day + 5/10/15

It is still that night of high anxiety, Jesus’ last night with His disciples before His death. His last words to them are filled with urgency, but above all with love. He has drawn the disciples and you and me to know and to believe who He is, the great I AM, that is, our great Lord and God incarnate, in the flesh come to save us. We need to know and believe that or our faith will be misplaced and our understanding of His death and resurrection inadequate. He makes clear that we also need to know and believe how He will still be with us after His death and resurrection. Today we hear Him expand on that, saying, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Continue reading “The Law of Love”

Posted on

The Fruit of Love

Text: John 15:1-8
Date: Easter V + 5/3/15

We remember that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was instituted and commanded to be repeated as reported to us from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and St. Luke and the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. Interestingly, St. John’s Gospel, written much later than the others, does not include the institution of this sacrament. Rather it is the Apostle and Evangelist St. John who records for us and reports five entire chapters of everything else Jesus said and did on that night in which He was betrayed. Today’s Gospel is one little selection, our Lord’s words, “I am the true vine…you are the branches.” Continue reading “The Fruit of Love”