Month: April 2017

Text: Luke 24:13-35
Date: Easter III + 4/30/17

This Third Sunday of Easter carries on the theme of the promise of the risen Jesus, “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe.” There was a lot of disbelief on that first Easter Day. Oh, the disciples may not have completely forgotten Jesus’ words when He told them, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Lk 9:22). Maybe their minds were so shocked and overwhelmed at the words “be killed” that they either didn’t remember or just didn’t believe Him when He said, “on the third day be raised.” That first Easter evening when the disciples told the absent Thomas that they had seen the Lord, he insisted that he would not believe it. I particularly like the short ending of St. Mark’s Gospel that just leaves you hanging with the words, “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for there were afraid” (Mk 16:8). Period. The End. Today in St. Luke’s wonderful account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus we are to learn that, after the fact of Christ’s death and resurrection, we must be taught what it means in order that saving faith may arise in our hearts. That teaching comes through the enlightening Word of the Gospel and the blessed meal-fellowship with Jesus in the sacrament of the altar. Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: Enlightening Word”

Text: John 20:19-31
Date: Easter II + 4/23/17

My brother spent his life in the United States Navy. He was deployed on various vessels a number of times over the years including the days of the Vietnam War. He has three children, my nieces Kirsten and Kaarin and my nephew Tommy Jr. The interesting thing is that all three were born while he was away at sea. So they did not meet their father until he returned from wherever he was. We’ve all seen video of military men (and now even women) returning from service some coming home to greet their children again, some of the men coming home to greet their children for the first time! I mention this because Christians have a similar experience in the Kingdom of Christ. Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: Sons and Daughters of the King”

Text: Matthew 28:1-10
Date: Easter + 4/16/17

At Easter we witness the greatest transfer of power in the history of the world; greater than the American Revolution or any other revolution; greater than the more peaceful transfer of power from one American President to the next. This was a transfer of royal cosmic power to reign and rule over all creation, something only the maddest of men have even contemplated. Martin Luther saw it that way in his Easter hymn, “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands.” He sees the enemy wearing the crown of his reign of sin and death in this world now taken and transformed by God as he writes,

Christ Jesus, God’s own Son, came down,
His people to deliver;
Destroying sin, He took the crown
From death’s pale brow forever:
Stripped of pow’r, no more it reigns;
An empty form alone remains;
It sting is lost forever. Alleluia! Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: The Reign of Death is Ended”