240519 Sermon for Pentecost, May 19, 2024

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord with all your graces now outpoured. Amen.

Christians celebrate three major festivals. Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’s birth. Easter is the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection. Today’s festival is Pentecost. It doesn’t get the hype that the other two get. Christians usually have a good grasp of the importance of Christmas and Easter; less so with Pentecost. So today we will speak about the importance of Pentecost, but before that we should speak about what happened.

We will begin with Good Friday and Easter. Jesus’s death on Good Friday and his Resurrection on Easter changed everything. Jesus died for sin and was raised with power. The Gospels describe how things were with Jesus after the resurrection, and things were a bit strange. Oftentimes people did not immediately recognize who Jesus was. Mary Magdalene didn’t immediately recognize Jesus on Easter morning at the tomb. On Easter evening the disciples who were traveling to the village of Emmaus didn’t immediately recognize him.

In addition to Jesus not being immediately recognized, he would do things with his body that he hadn’t done before. He suddenly disappeared from the Emmaus disciples after they recognized him. He suddenly appeared to the disciples in the upper room, even though the doors were locked. Jesus made these different appearances, speaking somewhat briefly—it seems—to his disciples, but the things he would say during these appearances were extremely important.

In Matthew 28 he appeared to his disciples and told them to make disciples of all nations. Christians should baptize, teach what Jesus taught, and Jesus would be with them until the end of the age. In John chapter 20, in that upper room, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whosoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whosoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.” With those words Jesus commanded his Christians to forgive the sins of all who repent, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant so long as they do not repent. These are extremely important instructions that continue to be carried out in the Christian Church.

Jesus appeared and spoke with his disciples, here and there, over the course of 40 days. Then Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father. We had a church service to commemorate that ten days ago, on a Thursday evening. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father to reign and rule over all things. The way that he reigns and rules in his spiritual kingdom is through his Christian disciples. Jesus’s disciples continue to do what Jesus commanded them before he ascended into heaven. Christians baptize, forgive and retain sins, teach, have the Lord’s Supper together and so on. Through these things sinners who otherwise believe in false gods are turned to the true God, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is nothing more important than believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is where Pentecost comes in with its great importance. About 50 days after Easter and 10 days after Jesus’s Ascension, the Jews were gathered together for one of their Old Testament harvest festivals. While they were gathered together there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind, tongues of flame appeared over the disciples, and the disciples spoke with their fellow Jews about the mighty works of God. Some of these Jews came from far flung places and spoke different languages.

Our reading from Acts gives us the first part of Peter’s speaking to those who were gathered. He speaks with courage and enthusiasm about Jesus Christ being Lord. He vigorously argues that Jesus is the fulfillment of what was prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus is God’s Son, and they had crucified him! But he concluded his message in this inclusive way: “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” He assures them that despite their murdering of God’s own Son that the promise was for them and for their children. It was for those who were near and for those who were far off. It was for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. Those who believed that day were baptized, and 3,000 souls were added.

The most important thing that happened on Pentecost was the work of the Holy Spirit. People repented of all that was false, and believed the truth: Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. Faith in Jesus is what makes a person a Christian. Faith in Jesus is the sole and indispensable requirement for being a member of the Holy Christian Church. It doesn’t matter where a person comes from. They could be from Mesopotamia, Judea or Cappadocia. They could be of any race, any skin color. They could be poor or rich, well dressed or poorly dressed. They could come from any background—they could have been wild, inhabited by many demons, or they could be stuck-up Pharisees. Everyone who believes in Jesus the Christ turns away from their false and worthless ways and embraces the forgiveness, life, and salvation that come from Jesus.

Pentecost is a festival about the Holy Spirit, who creates faith. Pentecost is also a festival about the Christian Church. It is the beginning of the Christian Church, so to speak, because from Pentecost onward the Gospel, the good news about Jesus, spread. Those who heard the Gospel believed it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Since they believed it, they also spoke it. Since they spoke it, still more believed it.

There is a direct line from Pentecost to us being gathering here today. This is not some accident of history. God the Holy Spirit has been at work creating faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus causes those who believe in him to speak the Gospel.

But as we consider that direct line from Pentecost to today, we might want to ask ourselves, “Are we still speaking the Gospel?” Before we answer too quickly with a, “Well of course we are still preaching the Gospel!” we might want to consider something. Jesus tells all those who want to be his disciples that they must bear the cross. The cross means to suffer and to sacrifice. Speaking the Gospel will always carry with it suffering and sacrifice.

Even on Pentecost there was suffering. The Christians were made fun of. Some bystanders laughed at them and said that they had gotten drunk on grape juice. Already at Pentecost there was sacrifice. Immediately after Pentecost the book of Acts tells us that the Christians sold what they had so that they could provide for whoever was in need. The story of suffering and sacrifice is repeated over and over in the book of Acts. Wherever the Gospel went it caused trouble. Paul was kicked out of one town after another until he was finally carted off to Rome in chains. According to legend, eleven out of the twelve apostles were violently put to death.

So, again, we might ask, “Are we still speaking the Gospel?” It seems to me that we are in trouble, and we’ve been in trouble for a long time. The trouble we have is that we want to come up with a Gospel that doesn’t require suffering and sacrifice. We don’t want to live how Jesus commanded and as the book of Acts puts on display. We want a Christian life where we get to live just like the rest of the world with all their selfishness, comfort, and ease, but we like to believe that we won’t go to hell for it. We’ll get a free pass. Why will we get a free pass? Maybe because we went to church all the time. Maybe we even gave a lot of money in offerings. That’s not a bad deal is it?

It’s also not the Gospel. It is a false Gospel that pretends to be the true Gospel. This false Gospel was identified by the Lutheran Reformers. The Catholic Church is as good at this false Gospel as anybody is. They had figured out a way for Christians to have their cake and eat it too. All that was really necessary to be a good Catholic was to show up at church and give them some money. Depending on how much you gave it might even make you down right exemplary.

Luther saw through this comfortable and convenient Christianity. It was, in fact, a cheap Christianity even if millions were given in offerings because it laid no claim on the person. As we all know it is not hard for those who are wealthy to write a check. Eventually those who are so filthy rich that they don’t know what to do with all of their money start to write checks without even being asked. They want this or that building to be named after them.

Christianity is much deeper than that. It requires much more suffering and sacrifice than that. Luther learned this from Jesus and he preached it. The very first of Luther’s 95 theses from October 31, 1517 said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Another way of saying this is that if you do not want to repent, then you do not want to be a Christian. Repentance is hard! It requires humility. A life of repentance and faith will be one of suffering and sacrifice according to Jesus’s own words.

Why should anyone live this life? We naturally don’t like to suffer or sacrifice. The answer is that loving to the point of suffering and sacrifice is beautiful and divine. Such a life is good and beautiful like Jesus’s life was good and beautiful with his suffering and his sacrificing.

Now you might think, “I can’t do that.” I’m glad that you are honest enough to admit that. I can’t do it either. So also neither you nor I can raise ourselves from the dead can we? But today is Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is God. When a person is converted, and reconverted, and converted yet again to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit is given to that person. The Holy Spirit dwells in us.

Furthermore, Jesus is Lord. He reigns and rules in his kingdom and we are following his lead. He is on the warpath, beating back the devil, sin, death, selfishness, apathy, strife, and whatever else is evil.

Repent, believe, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the Gospel. It was the Gospel at Pentecost. It is the Gospel that gives eternal life today.

Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with all your graces now outpoured. Amen.

240509 Sermon for Ascension of our Lord May 9, 2024

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? Maybe some of you remember a commercial for the powerball lottery. In the commercial different people catch the powerball, which had lightning coming from it if I remember correctly. With that powerball in hand they could point to their regular looking house, and they’d have a mansion. They could point to their regular looking car, and they’d have a Ferrari. If you won the lottery, then you could buy a lot of stuff you can’t afford now. Would that get you what you want?

Winning the lottery, however, is not very likely. That commercial was a bit fanciful. In “real life” you have to keep your goals reasonable.

Since we are so used to living “real life,” it is easy to manage our expectations too thoroughly so that we don’t even begin to grasp the meaning of Christ’s ascension. We get so used thinking we can’t have everything we want—that’s fairy tale stuff—that we don’t believe in what the ascension means. The ascension means that Jesus is Lord. All rule and authority and power and dominion have been put under his feet. The inheritance we will receive from God because of Jesus is beyond our imagination. Paul says, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Although we can’t fully grasp what God has prepared for us, it is important to try. If we don’t try, then we won’t get it. At best our imaginations will be limited to those powerball kinds of wishes, and those powerball kinds of wishes are not high enough. Eben the highest kind of wishes that you might have with the lottery aren’t high enough.

Suppose there would be some kind of lottery that would enable you to suck up every last cent and every last piece of property on this earth. All other human beings become your slaves. Nothing happens without your say-so. Even after winning this lottery so that you are some kind of god on this earth—that would not be good enough.

To try to grasp our inheritance we must think higher. We must think about God. There are many things we could think about with God, and they would all be good, but tonight I’ll limit myself to just a couple things: life and love. We’ll begin by talking about life.

Life comes from God. God is the creator. From the smallest thing to the largest thing—all things come from him. We might wonder at the power of the sun, the vastness of the universe—these things come from God. On a more personal level, we all have a craving for life, because whenever we have tasted it we have so thoroughly enjoyed it.

Another word for enjoying life is fun. Fun comes in different shapes and forms that vary with each person. One has fun with his or her mind. Another has fun with his or her heart. Another has fun with his or her accomplishments. Romance, friends, laughter, fear, pity, weeping—these are all interesting facets of life. People want to live rather than die because life is good. Life comes from God.

Love, also, comes from God. John in his epistle even goes so far as to say that “God is love.” Love draws people together so that they are one. Giving love is reaching out to bring in the other. Receiving love is when you have been accepted and brought in. We all know by experience how good this is. We also know by experience how bad the opposite of this is. We have all experienced rejection: “No, you aren’t one with us.”

Think of how this happens with children. Second, third, fourth grade—all of a sudden there are in-groups and out-groups. The in group is to be loved and admired. The out group is lesser and are given to know this by being shunned or mocked. The kids get shuffled and sorted, usually on the basis of things that they have no control over. Kids are just like us. They want to be recognized and admired. To be reviled and humiliated is painful.

What can be done about this? It’s unbelievable how common it is for people to believe that nothing can be done. People are just like that. There’s no other choice but to accept it. It’s along the same lines as winning the lottery. It is very unlikely that you are going to win the lottery, and so you must adjust your expectations accordingly. We live in the midst of so much that negates life and negates love, and the best that our smartest people can do is to throw up their hands and say, “So it goes.”

This defeatist, despairing philosophy is as powerful as it is unchristian. Despair is the opposite of faith and hope. To say that everything is just going to stay the same is a denial of Easter. It is a denial of Christ’s ascension to the right hand of God the Father.

I began tonight by asking, “If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be?” We don’t take that question seriously. What if we did? You can have anything you want. That’s actually the meaning of Easter and the Ascension. You can have anything you want.

There’s a catch, of course, although it’s not really catch. You can’t wish to suck up every last cent and every last piece of property so that all people are enslaved to you and you sit atop the world as though you were some kind of god. God’s not going to feed you hog slop like that. Hog slop like that is reserved for the hogs. Nor is God going to make it so that you are better than everyone else, so that you can be worshipped with all of your magnificence.

But if you want good things—high things that have to do with life and love and all of the other marvelous attributes of God—if you want good things, then you can have anything you want. Jesus said, “I came so that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” Again Jesus said, “I have spoken these things that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Whatever you want is yours.

It’s just a matter of time. Maybe we will not have as much life and love and other divine things in this life as we would like, but that might be because we have not prayed for them like we should. But even in the worst case scenario, the maximum we will have to endure is probably 80 years. Most of us are much further along than that. Then we will have whatever we want, and what we will want will only be the good and high things instead of the gross and ugly things. Such is the power of our Lord Jesus Christ that is put on display with his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven.

Jesus’s power is certainly a theme tonight with all of our worship. We have already sung, “Look ye saint the sight is glorious.” We’ve  sung, “This is the feast of victory for our God.” We’ll thank God for Jesus’s ascension before receiving the Lord’s Supper. We’ll sing some rousing hymns about about crowns and glory during the distribution. These songs of praise are fitting for the Ascension of our Lord. Jesus is more powerful than everything and everyone except God the Father.

The rulers and authorities and powers and dominions would have us believe life is just the way it is, and we have to accept it. They are wrong. They are dead wrong. Things don’t have to stay the way they are. Things can’t stay the way they are. Jesus is risen from the dead. Jesus reigns and rules at the right hand of God the Father. You are on the winning team. You are baptized into Christ. When Jesus comes again you will be caught up into the air to live with him. Whatever you want will be yours, and only those things that are good will you want.

This is good news.