Resurrection Sunday 4/4/10

Resurrection Sunday


04/04/10

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In a recent survey by Barna, a respected Christian statistical company, it was found that only 45% of Americans know what Easter is about. Only 45%, isn’t that amazing? You wouldn’t think that would you, for Christian churches all over our nation are full today. Easter Sunday, or as I prefer to call it Resurrection Sunday, is the largest attended worship services of the year. The following Sunday has the smallest attendance of the year. Not much different than what takes place after Christmas worship.

Let’s see. Today the largest attended. Next Sunday the smallest attendance. Hmm, something does not compute here. On Resurrection Sunday the good news of Jesus’ resurrection is shared with all that come. The good news of forgiveness is proclaimed and yet it doesn’t seem to make any difference to a vast majority of those who call themselves Christians. They go back to the same old routines and the fellowship of the congregation is forgotten.

I think that you would agree with me that if a person truly believed that there is nothing good in him or her, as far as making oneself worthy of God’s forgiveness, and that person heard that God has indeed forgiven you, not because of their worthiness, but because of Jesus’ life and death they would be thankful for such a God and would look forward to each Sunday, so that could worship God thanking him for what he had done. You would think that the resurrection story should bring people back Sunday after Sunday to worship God. You would think it would, but for many it doesn’t.

Why is it that the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus does not make a lasting impression on so many people? I wrestle with that question every year and can’t seem to come up with an answer until this past week.

My discovery started with a Bible study that I take part in every Monday. In this study we wrestle with the texts, so that we can better understand them. We look at how they apply to our lives. That way we can better teach the wonderful teachings of the Bible that not only provides salvation but helps people to live better lives because God’s love becomes real to them. This past Monday we were studying the resurrection story when one of the women in the group made a statement that caused quite a stir in the group. She said, “The resurrection must be experienced, not just known.” At first we were taken aback. Can this be true? Must we experience the resurrection besides knowing about it? And if that is true how do we experience it?

I know that you must know about the resurrection. That is why, with few exceptions, every Sunday I tell the people gathered there that day the good news of Jesus, birth, life, death, and resurrection, especially the resurrection for without the resurrection none of the rest. As Saint Paul tells us we would be the most pitiful people of all.

This whole week I have wrestled with that statement made that day. “You must experience the resurrection, not just know the resurrection.” I tried to dismiss it, but the more I thought about it, as I tried to put it into words for my sermon this morning I came to agree with her. To be the Christians that God wants us to be we must experience the resurrection, not just know about it. It is critical to one’s faith, to how one lives their live in service to the Lord.

You see, when you have experienced the resurrection, not just know about it you are changed forever. You develop a thirst for the Word. You want to know more about God and his desire for you. And, as you grow in your faith you look forward to attending the weekly worship service, so that you can spend time with others praising God, hearing his Word, taking part in his Sacraments, and being strengthened, so that you can handle the ups and downs of life. Christianity does not guarantee that you will have a good life. In fact God tells us that if you live a Christian life look for hardships because you will be living a right side up life in an upside down world. Experiencing the resurrection is good for you.

Of course that brings up the question, “Just how do people experience the resurrection and not just know about it?

You can’t just skip the teaching part, for you need to know that without Jesus you are doomed, for he is the only one that can save you. Of course some people have trouble with that because they either believe that God must take into account the good they do, or they believe that there must be other ways for a person to be saved, or as I hear quite often Christianity is the way Christians are saved, but there are other ways to be saved if you are not a Christian. Of course there are all sorts of problems with type of logic, for they all make God out to be liar. For Jesus has stated in his holy Word, “I am the way, the truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” As much as we would like soften that statement up, so that it does not offend those of other religions it is either the truth or it is not.

When I hear Christians talk that way it is quite apparent that they know of the resurrection, but have not experienced it, for when one experiences the resurrection you see that Jesus is God and that through his actions you are not only saved from God’s wrath, but you are guided by his teachings.

To experience the resurrection does not mean that you have to actually see Jesus rise from the tomb, for no one saw that. It just means that you believe the accounts of the eyewitnesses that saw that empty tomb that first resurrection morning. You experience it through their eyes and ears and it enters into you in such a way that cannot be explained, but is real, just as it was for those women that day who rushed off to tell others of the empty tomb.

I would say majority of you who are here this morning have experienced the resurrection. You believed at some time or other in your life the resurrection story as God had it written down by the eyewitnesses to the event, those who saw the empty tomb and later saw and talked with Jesus. Their resurrection story has become yours.

On the other hand some here this morning might not have yet experienced the resurrection story in such a way that you have accepted it. It is not too late, for it is a true story; a story about God and his love for his human creation. It is a story of resurrection. God wants the best for you. That is why he was born, lived, and died as one of us. He wants you to live it because the resurrection story is a true story of love, compassion, justice, and redemption. It is a life changing story that after one has experienced it will leave you in awe of God.

People will continue to say, “Oh, Jesus’ resurrection, that’s just your opinion.” But when you live your life like the resurrection matters people will become curious. Your co-workers and friends, and maybe even your family will say things to you like, “Why are you always spending so much time helping others? Why do you even care? Why are you so honest? Why are so different from others? Why do you look forward to attending worship services? Why are you are at peace in the tragedies of life? Why are you the way you are?”



They will ask and because Saint Peter wrote down for us in God’s Holy Word, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” You can say, “You want to know why I’m different? I’ll tell you the truth. It is because of Jesus’ resurrection. I have experienced it and I want you to experience it too, for it does matter in this life and the next.” Amen.

Maundy Thursday 4/1/10

Maundy Thursday


4/1/10

Text: Luke 22: 7-22

Title: A Change of Focus

In preparation for Good Friday we have gathered here to today to remember that night when Jesus using two, two letter words permanently changed the meaning of the Passover feast. From that time on it is no longer to be done in remembrance of God’s delivery from Egypt, as much as we should remember that deliverance, but in remembrance of Jesus’ death as he rescued us from slavery to sin. It is now a new covenant God made with his people which surpasses the old covenant.

Just a few days earlier Jesus had entered the city of Jerusalem. The people had adored him, for he was going to free them from the Romans. It was going to be a new beginning, and it was, but not the beginning they thought they needed. That first day that Jesus entered the city was wonderful, but it did not take long for them to realize that this Jesus was not who they thought he was.

Most of the religious community turned against him because he was upsetting the way things worked. It was not what they had been doing and they did not like it. They could see that if the people followed Jesus their power was going to be lost and when that was lost they would also lose their prestige and wealth. They had to get rid of him permanently. But they were not the only ones turning against him, for the people were fast deserting him, even his disciples that night would deny him and flee; all because a dead Jesus could not be the king that would free them from the Romans.

In the midst of this Jesus knowing what was going to happen to him that night wanted some time with his disciples. He wanted to be in communion with them, because, as he stated elsewhere in God’s Holy Word he would not celebrate the supper until he came back on the last day when the he would call all out of their graves, those who trusted in him to everlasting life with him, those who rejected his love to everlasting life without him.

So that night he spoke new words at the Passover. He spoke of his blood and body being the sacrifice instead of the lamb and its blood being sacrificed. There is no doubt that the disciples were confused that night, for they too did not understand Jesus’ mission. Even though his death had not yet taken place Jesus was giving them a way to remember his death, for instead of remembering the blood of the lamb that was spread across the top of the door saving those inside from the avenging angel that took the lives of all firstborn creatures both animal and human, They are to remember Jesus’ blood that was going to be spilt upon the cross for the purpose of protecting those who believe in him from the wrath of God.

It was a confusing couple of days for the disciples. Things were not turning out as they planned. Jesus was not celebrating the Passover the same way as the rest of the Jewish people. It was different and I am sure that they were troubled by some parts of it particularly when he said, as he held up the bread, “This is my body.” And when held up the cup, “This is my blood.”

In saying those words Jesus is saying that no longer are people to look forward to the forgiveness of their sins yet to be secured. No longer are people to look forward to a Savior to come, for he has come. His death is the final sacrifice which all the sacrifices for thousands years pointed toward. In these simple yet life giving words he said, “This is my body” and “This is my blood” and in doing so he attaches his forgiveness to the Supper.

Tonight he invites you to that same table where he says to us, “This is my body, which is given for you and this is my blood which is the new covenant in my blood.” We don’t understand how it can be, but those words come from the same one who spoke at creation, “Let there be” and there was. We don’t understand how his words accomplished it, but it happened and it was good. He is the same one who stood at the wedding at Cana and changed water into wine. He is the same one who spoke words and people were healed, forgiven and brought back to life. When God speaks things happen.

It is this same God who, at the Passover said, “This is my body and this is my blood.” He is here now in the sip of wine and bit of unleavened bread that we receive in his supper today. We don’t know how it is. We don’t understand it. We just believe it because he has said it is so. What God says he does, he does, and we rejoice in the wonderful gift he has given us.

So when you partake of his Supper in just a few minutes remember that the blood he shed is the blood of forgiveness that we so desperately need, for without the shedding of his blood there is no forgiveness, salvation or eternal life with him. Amen.

Good Friday 4/2/10

Good Friday


4/2/10

Text: Luke 23:44-45

As I was preparing for my talk to you today on the crucifixion of our Savior verses 44 and 45 of our Gospel caught my attention. "It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. " I can’t say that I ever paid much attention to those particular verses before except for seeing that a solar eclipse had taken place when Jesus was on the cross. It was a sign from God, that I knew, but as I read it this time I noticed the length of the eclipse. It was three hours long.



That seemed a long time for a solar eclipse, so I did some research and found out something that I want to share with you today. Every 18 months, somewhere around the world, the sun goes black, well it never goes actually black, for light bends around the moon which is between the earth and sun, plus there is the light from the stars. A solar eclipse will only last about 7 minutes, no more than that.

This darkness lasted approximately 3 hours not 7 minutes. It is not the same darkness when you have a solar eclipse. Something else is going on. I did a Bible word search on the word we translate as darkness to see how it is used elsewhere in the Bible. What I found out is that this darkness was like the darkness before God created light. It is also the same darkness that God cursed Egypt with when Pharaoh would not let the people go. It was a darkness that could be felt. Probably the closest thing we could come up with is the deep darkness when you are in a cave and the light goes out. You cannot see your hand even if you got right up against your eye. That type of darkness is oppressive and you would not want to stay in that darkness very long.

We get the reason behind Luke recording this for us from John 8:12 where Jesus is recorded as saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Darkness is scary and dangerous, for statically more crimes are committed at night than during the day.

Deep down, something about the dark unsettles us. And here is Jesus the light of the world surrounded in darkness and it appears that the darkness has overcome the light. The darkness did not win, for Jesus the light of he world calls us away from dark deeds. He calls us away from dark thoughts. He calls us away from words that mean dark things. He calls us away from the darkness we are tempted to dabble in, and “into his marvelous light”

When the sun rose on that first Good Friday, Jesus was in front of men who desired to do dark things to him. All through the previous night they had been harassing him, and mocking him, and trying to condemn him of crimes they had manufacture against him. They had waited until dark to arrest Jesus and through the night they did not leave him alone. As the sun rose they had what they wanted and took Jesus to Pilate where they did the committed one more dark deed; they falsely accused him in front of Pilate. Pilate gave the orders and the darkest deed of all was put into place. Jesus was condemned to die.

As the sun reached its highest point in the sky they nailed him to the cross. And then the sun failed for three hours until Jesus breathed his last breath. This was no eclipse, or blink of the sun, no passing dark cloud. It was as if the sun which was created by Jesus before he became one of us, was in itself rebelling against what was taking place. Here we see God judging, as he did in Egypt. God was judging sin just as he did in Egypt. He was setting his people free. And in doing so he set each one of you free from the dark slavery of sin setting you into the light of the resurrected Jesus.

That afternoon Jesus was put in a dark hole called a tomb and he was left there to stay. Yet we know that he did not stay, for the Light cannot be overcome by darkness. In Revelation where we see that the light wins over darkness John mentions that Jesus’ face shines like the sun. That is the light we have in the darkness of our lives. That is the light we will celebrate on Resurrection Sunday. The light that has enlightened you, so that even as we come forward to put our nail of sin into the cross we know we do not stand in darkness for Sunday is coming. Amen.

Sunday of the Passion 3/28/10

Palm Sunday / The Sunday of the Passion

03/28/10

Text: Philippians 2:5-11

Title: For You

Today is an awkward Sunday. We reenacted Jesus’ triumphant welcome in into Jerusalem, as we entered our newly remodeled sanctuary. We sang hosannas as we enjoyed our new organ and listened to the choirs. Then we heard the longest Gospel reading you have ever heard. We heard of Jesus being beaten, scorned, deserted, and finally killed. It was not joyful that is for sure, but it needs to be heard and taken into our very being.

This service has been planned very carefully, so that you can fully experience the joy and sorrow of this week, the most holy of weeks in the church year. I have done this for two reasons. The first being that I am a firm believer that you can’t truly know the full extent of God’s love unless you know of his final time leading up to and including the crucifixion. The second reason we are doing what we are doing is, if past attendance holds true only half of those attending our usual Sunday morning worship services will attend Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services.

What brought this all about is a report from Barna which I read a month or so ago. Barna is a well respected Christian research firm that asked Those who professed to be Christians and who said they attended weekly services what Easter is about. Only 77% of them knew what Easter is about. They also asked another group who professed to be Christian what Easter was about. In that group only 55% of them knew that Easter is when the resurrection of Jesus was celebrated.

As I thought about it the more I came to believe that the Christian community should call Easter Resurrection Sunday. At least Resurrection Sunday would cause some to question why it is called Resurrection Sunday giving those who know a chance to tell them the story of God’s love.

We refer to this week as holy week because it is the week in which our Lord’s passion and death took place. It is in this week that we celebrate that Jesus took all that was unholy into himself and suffered what it deserved. We who know that we are still sinners deserving of God’s punishment are also holy only because by our Lord’s suffering, death, and burial, for he has made us holy in the eyes of His Father

To those outside of Christianity and unfortunately to many in the Christian church Jesus dying, for our sake is fantasy, just the writing of people long ago, as they wrestled with their sin and God’s demand of righteousness. Sound shocking to you? It should, but we should not be surprised, for just as those who stood there at the crucifixion thought it was foolishness many today think the same thing.

Think about it a moment. How can one man who claimed to be God allow himself, indeed willingly gave himself to torture and death even for those who deny him or hate him. It is just nonsense, it is said. And when you look at that mutilated man who we know as Jesus hanging on it, it is not very easy to accept his kingship is it?

It is hard to accept or believe because that is not we would have done. We know a thing or two about what it means to be God don’t we and high up on the list is that if you are king of all things you don’t die.

The cross goes utterly against what is ingrained in us. If we were God, we wouldn’t let anyone nail us to a cross. If we were God, we would never allow ourselves to suffer the mockery, shame, and humiliation that Jesus suffered from the time he was betrayed to the time that He died.



If we were God we would call down twelve legions of angels. We would make Golgotha flow with the blood of a thousand sinners instead of letting nails pierce the veins of the sinless one. That is what we would do. We would kill them all. We would suffer none of the pangs that Jesus endured when He was nailed to the cross.

That is why we have in God’s Holy Word Philippians 2. It is an ancient song that praises Christ for all that He has done for us in His suffering, death, and resurrection. Paul wrote that song down for the congregation of Philippi as they gathered just as we have this morning gathered together to receive Christ’s gifts and sing about all that He had done for His Church.

We too need to read hear Paul’s letter and the Gospel reading because our natural tendency is to deny the reality of our Lord’s life of service even unto death for his human creation.

We have a mind that is moved by lust for power, our power, instead of by mercy. We have a mind that looks at the cross and sees weakness instead of glory. That is why Paul tells us that we are to be of the same mind that Christ Jesus has because he knows that we don’t have that mind, or that attitude toward God.

I urge you as your pastor to take the time out of your busy lives this week to spend holy week with Jesus in this community of believers. Watch him take the position of a slave as he washes the feet of the disciples. Watch him as he stands trial, gets physically, emotionally abused and then is nailed to a wooden cross. Be there as he cries out in pain to God the Father. Be there as he cries out, “It is finished.” Be there with the faithful who stand at the foot of the cross, as they lower his dead body from the cross and lay it in a tomb. Be there and know God’s love.

Today we honor our king as we join our voices with those long ago singing, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!” He deserves glory, honor, praise, and dominion.

We want a living breathing powerful earthly king who we can give glory to, but you see our idea of glory is not his idea of glory. Jesus showed his true glory in none of the things that we would associate glory with. He shows us that anyone who is truly great desires only the good of the other. When Jesus laid down his life for us he revealed the glory that is hidden from sinful eyes. That is why so many today just don’t get it. They want their idea of glory to be his and it just is not so.

Jesus glory is found in his suffering and death, because in his suffering and death, by the shedding of his blood on the cross, Jesus has won life and salvation for you. By the shedding his blood on the cross, Jesus has destroyed the power of death and hell forever. By the shedding of his blood on the cross, he has received all the authority and glory that was always his before he came to be one of us.

And so, this Sunday, as you begin your journey with Christ to the cross, enjoy the time you are spending in worship hearing and singing great music, listening to God’s Word and taking into yourself the very body and blood of Jesus.

Jesus is not the kind of king that you’d expect; he is the king that you and I need, for it is our sin and unbelief that nailed Jesus to that cross, but he does not hate you for it. On the contrary he loves you more than you can ever understand. He is your Savior now and forever. Amen.