Month: May 2017

Text: John 17:1-11
Date: Easter VII + 5/28/17

This is an odd Sunday. ‘Always has been. It is still Easter, our continued celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It’s been 43 days. On the 40^th day this past Thursday we remembered our Lord’s Ascension, “Up through endless ranks of angels… To His heavenly throne ascending” (LSB 491). And now we wait for this glorious season to deliver us to the more glorious, great 50th day of Pentecost. But what are we to do right now, this Sunday, while we wait? In the first chapter of Acts we join the apostles waiting and wondering what’s next. The Old Testament festival of Pentecost awaits, but they have no idea it will be any different than any past celebration. Meanwhile, they take care of the detail of replacing Judas Iscariot with Matthias so that they now number twelve again. Great. And so? Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: The Throne He Had Ne’er Departed”

Text: John 14:15-21
Date: Easter VI + 5/21/17

In the annual celebration of Easter Christians are to learn that faith is not only a nice set of religious principles to be followed but is rather a living, active thing that changes us and gives life. St. Paul drew otherwise knowledgeable people in Athens from their blind religion of mere human philosophies to faith in the one and only true God, unknown to them until Paul spoke the word of God, telling of the Creator, Sustainer and Savior of all pointing to the man Jesus who died but was raised from the dead. That is, this thing called faith is actually how God Himself dwells in us, renews and strengthens us. It is not something we somehow conjure up in ourselves on our own, but is the result of God the Holy Spirit commandeering our spirit, mind and soul, enlightening us through the truth of God’s word as we prayed in today’s Introit, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). It is Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ that opens our hearts and minds to be able to hear, to understand and believe the Gospel. Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: Bright Jewel of My Crown”

Text: John 14:1-14
Date: Easter V + 5/14/17

In the Easter season the first thing we learn of what it means that the Lord Jesus  is risen from the dead is that He now lives for us in both His full humanity and exulted deity. That we witness Him appearing to His disciples and then disappearing—appearing and disappearing—is to teach us, in part, that He is with us always whether we can see Him or not. But now reflecting on the words He spoke to us before His suffering, death and resurrection we begin to understand more fully what He meant because now we have the key to understanding, namely, the resurrection. As we do reflect on the words He spoke that first Holy Thursday, “on the night in which He was betrayed,” we are being prepared for His Ascension into heaven on the 40^th day of Easter after which he will no longer be appearing and disappearing but will be with us by faith through word, sacrament and Spirit alone. Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: Our Victorious King”

Text: John 10:1-10
Date: Easter IV + 5/7/17

Every year the Fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday. Therefore every year we hear a portion of John chapter 10. Interestingly, it is only in the second year of the three-year lectionary that we actually hear Jesus say, “I am the good shepherd.” Today we may think of Jesus as the shepherd of the sheep to whom the gatekeeper opens the door and leads His sheep in and out to find pasture. But then St. John tells us “this figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.” Oddly then it seems Jesus changes the figure and then says, “I am the door of the sheep.” So which is He? The Shepherd or the Door? Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: Our Kingly Shepherd”