Author: Al

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Easter Vacancy

Text: Mark 16:1-8
Date: The Resurrection of Our Lord + 4/1/18

Do you remember how we started this journey of telling the story of Jesus Christ? Though this is the year of St. Mark we didn’t start with him. We didn’t begin with Mark chapter one because the Evangelist doesn’t begin with any account of Christmas. Rather he begins his gospel with John the Baptist and the beginning of the thirty-year-old savior’s earthly ministry. As we heard today, as Mark didn’t tell us the beginning of the story, now neither does he tell us the end. He just stops abruptly at the empty tomb with no record of our Lord’s many resurrection appearances. Continue reading “Easter Vacancy”

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To Bear Witness to the Truth

 

Text: John 18:36-37
Date: Good Friday + 3/30/18

“My kingdom is not of this world.” “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” This is the confusion that lay behind our Lord’s final hours ending in His crucifixion. He didn’t deny He had a kingdom and was a king. Pontius Pilate, of course, could only conceive of kingdoms as earthly governments. Those who delivered Jesus to him knew, however, that He was talking about His equality with God and the higher kingdom that is over any and all earthly ones. Pilate saw a threatened rival. The Jews saw blasphemy. Therefore they pressed Pilate’s button when they said, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar” (19:12).

“For this purpose I was born.” Some of the first to discover this, of course, were the wise men from the east years ago who followed his star and came to honor this newborn king. One of the first to hear it was Herod the king who also feared a rival sovereign and sought to wipe Him out as an infant.

But for this purpose He was born, indeed. The descendant of the great king David as God promised, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom…. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (2 Sam 7:12-14). “Are you the King of the Jews?” asked Pilate. When Jesus did not deny it Pilate said, “So you are a king!”

Just five days ago the people’s praise echoed through the holy city, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (12:13). Pilate has His verdict written and placed above His head on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Yes, Jesus was a king. For this purpose He was born.

The purpose, He said, was “to bear witness to the truth.” Remember that Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6). What is truth? Jesus is truth. For He is the savior of sinners.

The truth is “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). None can save himself and so all are in need of a savior. The truth is Jesus is the world’s redeemer. For this purpose He was born. For this purpose He lived a holy life. For this purpose He was anointed “to proclaim good news to the poor…to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk 4:18-19). For this purpose He taught and preached and healed. For this purpose He was baptized by John. For this purpose He freely forgave sins. For this purpose finally He allowed Himself in humble obedience to His Father to be arrested, falsely accused, condemned as a criminal, whipped and beaten and spit upon. For this purpose He was mocked and crucified, died and was buried.

And that’s where we leave this king tonight; in His silent tomb. The silence of the previous night was ominous. The silence of this night, however, gives hope. For His purpose has been accomplished. He was crucified, died and was buried only to proclaim victory over the hordes of hell and to rise again on the third day. For this purpose He has come into the world, to bear witness to the truth and if you continue in His Word you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

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A Ransom for Many

Text: Mark 10:35-45
Date: Lent V + 3/18/18

This is a most unusual story today. For at first hearing we think it’s all about us, how we are not to be too proud or “lording it over others” as Jesus says, but are to see ourselves as servants after the example of Christ. And that’s part of it. We with the other disciples are taken aback and become indignant at James and John. But it wasn’t because they were any more loyal or faithful than the others, but I suspect but rather jealous that the two Zebedee bros cut in line to request Jesus what they themselves really desired, special reserved seating when Jesus would enter His glory in Jerusalem, rebuilding the Davidic temple and kingdom. And we should say that Jesus will come in His glory. But what is His glory? We are to discover next week that His glory begins with the cross, giving His life as a ransom. Then the kingdom will be fully restored only at the end of time when He comes in glory to gather “the many” who believed and received the gift of His redemption. By then, however, we will have been rid of any prideful boast or desire for recognition over other fellow redeemed sinners.

It does strike us that the two bold disciples are among the first to get bitten, as Luther would say, by the theology of glory. They didn’t understand Jesus’ prediction when he said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise” (Mk 10:33-34). This is the Fifth Sunday in Lent, our last chance as it were to be prepared for the Great and Holy Week. Like the disciples we can be distracted by the normal routines of life and be unprepared and missing the importance of this, the heart and center of the Gospel of salvation, namely, our Lord’s suffering and death, that death we are to proclaim with bread and cup until He comes. Through the tragic story of Jesus’ betrayal, abuse, rejection, His bitter suffering and crucifixion we are to begin to see the true glory for which we long. Continue reading “A Ransom for Many”

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Whoever Believes in Him

Text: John 3:14-21
Date: Lent IV + 3/11/18

The account of Jesus’ night time teaching of Nicodemus is a sedes doctrinae or main seat of the doctrine of the sacrament of Holy Baptism. It therefore plays an important part in the Lenten forming of candidates new to the faith of the Church with the goal of baptism at the Easter Vigil. It is helpful today for you to know that our Gospel is from the end of Jesus’ teaching Nicodemus, saying, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” and, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3, 5). It seems, however, that we have a similar problem as last week hearing of the cleansing of the temple already at the beginning of John’s Gospel. For if you think purely in terms of the historic sequence of events one is left with questions, not the least of which is, how can Jesus teach about the sacrament of baptism when He hasn’t commanded it yet, until one of the very last things He said before His ascension? The answer from St. John is that baptism receives its power not only from the command to do it, but from the cross of Christ before it and especially the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan river. When a person is baptized he or she receives the new birth from above which is that new creation resulting from the redemptive work of Christ. Continue reading “Whoever Believes in Him”

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Who Do You Say I Am?


Text: Mark 8:27-38
Date: Lent II + 2/25/18
I could say a lot of things about Billy Graham who died this past week at the age of 99. I could criticize his hang up with decision theology. I would rather however thank God for him for, except for that aberration, I’ve always believed that he for the most part allowed the Bible to teach him, for many things he got right; for one thing centering his message always on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. I heard him speak alongside of our Oswald C. J. Hoffman, former speaker on The Lutheran Hour radio program, at the 1968 U.S. Congress on Evangelism in Minneapolis. This hand shook Billy Graham’s hand there. Of all the remembrances of him provided on television this week one thing stood out. He would say, “If you remember nothing else from this message remember this, God Loves You.” And then he’d repeat, “God Loves You.”
Such a simple message. Or was it? Or is it? Somehow Rev. Graham knew that sinful, distracted, wayward people needed to hear that, and not just once but over and over again. Today we hear the beginning of the main theme from Mark’s Gospel, namely, “God Loves You.” But He loves you in this way, “that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” And Mark tells us, “And he said this plainly.” This is the center of the Christian faith, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Continue reading “Who Do You Say I Am?”

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Through the Wilderness


Text: Mark 1:9-15
Date: Lent I + 2/18/18
Today’s Gospel from Mark chapter one begins by summarizing the entire season of Epiphany in order to deliver us into the season of Lent. In Marks’ Gospel the Epiphany, manifestation or shining forth of Jesus as the promised Messiah began with His baptism. These words of the voice from heaven also closed the season at the Transfiguration of Our Lord, “This is my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” We even heard the final part of today’s Gospel describing the beginning of Jesus active ministry of preaching, teaching and healing. What was skipped over in Epiphany, however, were these short words of verses 12 and 13 recalling our Lord’s first work, His temptation by the devil. Continue reading “Through the Wilderness”

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Called to Heal and to Preach…But More!

Text: Mark 1:29-39
Date: Epiphany V + 2/4/18
In our short Epiphany season this year we don’t even get any further in Mark’s short Gospel than the first chapter. The message has been short and quick which is St. Mark’s style. Jesus is baptized, He calls His first disciples, then we hear and see Him preaching repentance and the kingdom of God and healing, first a man with an unclean spirit, and today St. Peter’s mother-in-law and then the sick or demon oppressed of the whole city of Capernaum.
When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law we’re told “He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up.” Jesus touched with His hands many of those He healed while demons were expelled simply at His mighty command. Imagine the scene of the whole city gathered at the door and Jesus healing many with various diseases and casting out many demons. I don’t think He made a great show of it like you see so many faith healers on television today. At the end of this chapter (which we will not hear this season), Jesus even touches a man with leprosy!
The next day Jesus arose very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and went out to a desolate place to pray. Simon and his friends searched for Jesus to tell Him, “Everyone is looking for you.” Whereupon we are told Jesus’ surprising response, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” So that is the question of this text, why did Jesus come? Was it just to preach and heal? No, there was way more to it than that.
Both in what He preached and said and what He did Jesus is the Epiphany of God, the revealing of the one true God come not to judge and condemn us but to forgive, love and save us. As the Proper Preface for the season in the communion liturgy says, “In [Your Son], being found in the substance of our mortal nature, You have manifested the fullness of Your glory.”
Jesus is the God the prophet Isaiah wrote about, saying as in today’s reading, this is the God through whom all things were created and made, who sits above all even over earthly rulers such as princes and kings and prime ministers and presidents. And He has been ruling over all of them from the beginning, even though, as Isaiah says, “when He blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble” (Is 40:24). The prophet says the Lord is beyond compare as the creator by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power. Yet this mighty and all-powerful God has created all and created you out of love. That night in Capernaum Jesus did not grow weary but in fact gave power to the faint, for He is the Lord of the promise: “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Is 40:31).
This need for renewing of strength, this weariness, this fainting describes what is missing in all people because of sin: separation from God, from His life, from His love. As St. Augustine famously said, speaking for all, “Our souls are restless until they find their rest in thee, O Lord.” That rest happens not by taking some time off, sitting back in your favorite recliner, or taking a nap. True rest happens only in the forgiveness of your sins, and this is why Jesus came.
For all of this will reach that conclusion, the forgiveness of sins. Though at first many were impressed at His preaching and healing and casting out demons, His coming actually meant the beginning of a war, the great warfare against the devil, death and our own sinful flesh. We will see the increasing opposition He will encounter even as Simeon said at His infant presentation in the temple, “this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed” (Lk 2:34). That opposition will happen not only from His enemies but even from among His friends, His own chosen disciples. That opposition happens even from us in the struggle of our divided loyalties between the things of this world and the things of God, between taking our life for granted, treating it as my own ignorant of how death is stalking us all the way and that our life is not our own but is ever in God’s hands, God’s life-giving hands.
Those same hands that touched Simon’s mother-in-law, that healed many of various diseases including even those suffering from leprosy, those same hands would ultimately be nailed to a cross of crucifixion thereby bringing healing to the whole world. There He would die as a criminal, as a sinner, He would die not His own death but ours. That’s where sin and death met their match and forgiveness, holiness and eternal life were given and made available.
And now it is His sacred, life-giving hands that wash us in Holy Baptism, place His own self, His body and blood into our mouths, even as He Himself speaks the Gospel of the kingdom into our ears. Today we receive His healing touch, His forgiveness of all your sins, His gift of strength and eternal life that cannot be destroyed even by death. For we have already died, being buried with Him and raised again in His death and resurrection in Baptism. This is why we proclaim His death until He comes even as we celebrate the life He gives in His body and blood. Yes, this is why He came, to heal and to preach…but more! That through His own sacrifice we may be saved and given the gift of eternal life.