What Exactly Does the Holy Spirit Do?

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, today.]

Acts 2:1-21
Today brings us to the third great festival of the Church Year. There’s Christmas, then Easter, and now Pentecost.

Of course, Christmas and Easter get all the press. Churches are filled for celebrations of Jesus’ birth and His resurrection from the dead. But unless young people are being confirmed on Pentecost, as happens in many Lutheran congregations on this day, attendance is rarely higher on Pentecost Sunday than it is on most other Sundays of the spring or summer.

In the secular media, magazines and cable channels seem to always use Christmas and Easter as occasions for specials claiming that they’ve found “the real Jesus.” There’ll be no special Pentecost programming about "the real Holy Spirit" on CNN or the History Channel tonight.

Maybe that’s because the Holy Spirit, the One Whose coming fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead Pentecost celebrates, doesn’t really call attention to Himself.

He’s been called the “shy member of the Trinity,”--the third Person of the Three-in-One God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—Who seems always to be in the background.

Cartoonists may show God the Father as a white-bearded old man.

And Jesus has been the focal point of endless artistic renderings for the past two-thousand years.

Though the Scriptures insist that the Spirit has a personality—Jesus calls Him a Counselor, a Comforter, an Advocate, for example, and that He is equal to and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son, it's been hard for artists, theologians, preachers, and Christians, generally, to find ways to portray Him.

The Holy Spirit is sometimes shown as a dove. That’s because Luke’s Gospel, for example, tells us that when Jesus was baptized, the Spirit came to Him in the bodily form of a dove, a bird that the ancient Jews thought was pure, without bile.

Sometimes the Spirit is shown as fire. This is appropriate, not only because in our lesson from Acts for today, the Holy Spirit rested on 120 praying followers of Jesus like tongues of fire, but also because of some properties that fire shares with the Holy Spirit. Fire enlightens, destroys, and purifies. The Spirit of God does all of these things, depending on our needs at the time.

And sometimes, the Spirit is seen as wind. This too, is appropriate. The word translated as spirit from the Old Testament Hebrew is ruach, a word that also means wind or breath. It’s God’s ruach—wind or spirit—that moves over the waters in Genesis to create the world. It’s also God’s ruach that God breathes into dust to make the first human being.

In the Greek of the New Testament, the word pneuma has the same multiple meanings as ruach. Pneuma can also mean wind, breath, or spirit. But the problem with trying to picture something like wind or breath is that, as Jesus told Nicodemus, you may hear the sound of it—and on the first Pentecost, the Spirit must have sounded like a freight train filling the house where the first disciples had been praying--but you can’t really see it. You can only see the evidence of it.

Maybe the Spirit’s shyness and His insusceptibility to being pictured are why we attach so little importance to Pentecost.

Maybe too, it’s easier to understand what Jesus does for us than it is to understand what the Spirit does for us. At Christmas, we easily understand that Jesus, God the Son, took on the burden of being human. At Easter, we understand that after dying on a cross for us, Christ rose to give life to all who turn from sin and follow Him.

But what exactly does the Holy Spirit do for us? A lot of things, really, if we will let Him do them for us.

If you want a good starting understanding of what the Holy Spirit does to and for believers, look at the Apostles' Creed, which Christians around the world agree is a faithful presentation of the basics of Christian faith. It used to be I misunderstood the Creed. I did get that it was divided into three sections or articles of faith. I understood that the first article talks about what God the Father does and that the second article about what Jesus, God the Son, does. But I got confused by the third article: I saw it as offering a perfunctory affirmation of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of a laundry list of things Christians also believe. But, in fact, everything listed in the third article are things that the Holy Spirit does. They include:

• Creating the whole Church on earth
• Creating communion among all forgiven believers in Christ
• Giving the forgiveness Christ won on the cross to repentant believers in Christ
• Resurrecting those with faith in Christ
• Giving eternal life to Christians

Those are all works of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, about whom we think so little.

And the Holy Spirit does much more than these things in the lives of believers. I want to talk about two things the Spirit does for us today, as seen in our first lesson, which comes from Acts 2.

First, the Holy Spirit gives us the courage to live past our fears. Before the events recounted in our lesson, 120 followers of Jesus had gathered in a room to, just as Jesus had ordered them to do, wait and pray for the power of God to come upon them.

When the Spirit came upon them “like the rush of a violent wind,” they did something they probably couldn’t have imagined doing moments before: They hit the hostile streets of Jerusalem, moving out among some of the very crowds who, just a few weeks before, had cried for Jesus’ death. They told anyone who would listen about God's mighty deeds and conveying the message that all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved.

The Spirit gives courage to people who pray. Years ago, we met a woman who was the mother of three children. Once, there had been four. The oldest child died at the age of two. After that tragic death, the woman had taken solace in two things: being a super-mom to her second child, another girl, and in using God as a lucky charm. When she wasn’t doting on her daughter, watching her like a hawk, she was immersed in church activities, intent on warding off anything bad that might happen to the child. One day, the woman turned her head for an instant and when she turned back, the little girl was gone. The mother looked everywhere. When she finally found her, the little one was at the bottom of their pool. She had been there for some time. Terrified, the woman, who had been sent to a waiting area once her child had been transported to a hospital emergency room, screamed out to God. Then, panting between her shrieks of terror, she heard, in her mind, a message that must have come from the Holy Spirit: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

From the Holy Spirit, Who, Jesus says, convicts us of our sin and convinces us that Christ can forgive our sin and lead us down better paths, this woman learned that her “faith” had really been superstition, a ploy to be in control of a world not in our control. She had been worshiping her child. She needed to let go, letting God be God and letting both her daughter and her be children of God. Miraculously, the child survived. But, whether the daughter had survived or not, from the Holy Spirit, the mother knew that God had given her the courage to live past her fears. The Holy Spirit does that for us.

The Holy Spirit also gives us a reason for living. Often, elderly people will ask me, “Why hasn’t God taken me yet? What am I still doing here?”

Sadly, these questions often come from people who have been hard workers their entire lives but who are no longer able to do the things they formerly could.

And young people, tired of the seeming futility of their lives often ask me the same question. I try to remind these Christians that they (and all of us) are human beings, not human doings.

They (and we) have value not because of what we do, but because of who we are.

When we stand before the judgment seat of God in eternity, God won’t ask us, “How much money did you make? How many points did you score? How often did you clean your house, stay late on the job?” God won't even ask us, "Did you leave a happy and fulfilling life?"

Instead, God will ask, “Were you a believer in the Lord Jesus? Were you a repentant sinner? Were you a grateful disciple?”

All baptized Christians are given the gift of the Holy Spirit Who reminds us that by grace, God accepts us we are and helps us to move toward becoming who we were made to be and by that same grace, God gives us a reason for living no matter what our abilities.

The first followers of Christ must have wondered after Jesus ascended into heaven why they were still around. In Jesus, they’d glimpsed eternity and they wanted to be with Him. But here they were, stuck on a planet filled with people who would rather worship themselves, or possessions, or power, or prominence, rather than the God Who made them and died and rose for them. They were stuck living a life in which they would have to struggle and possibly suffer. They were stuck too, in their imperfections, still susceptible to sin.

But when the Holy Spirit came, He gave Jesus’ praying followers a reason for living this as fully as they could. In short, the Holy Spirit game them a vocation.

All followers of Jesus have the same vocation, whatever jobs they do, even if they can no longer do a scrap of work.

A village in southern Italy learned this in the waning days of World War 2. The German soldiers who had occupied their community after re-installing Benito Mussolini as the Fascist dictator of Italy, retreated in the face of the Allied military forces.

But as the Germans fell back, their artillery shattered a statue of Christ that had once stood in the village square. The local priest told the men of the village to search for the arms, legs, and head of the statue of Christ. In the meantime, the women would prepare a village feast.

At dusk, in despair, the men approached the priest. “Father,” one of them said, “we have tried to put the statue back together. But there are no hands for Jesus. They are in pieces.”

“Children,” the priest replied, “don’t you realize? You are His hands?”

You are the hands of Christ.

That is your vocation.

That is your reason for living.

And, as was true of the first followers of Christ, the Holy Spirit will give you the capacity to fulfill your vocation, to be Christ’s hands.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t get a lot of attention. Maybe He doesn’t want it.

He’s like the quiet saint content with a ministry of praying for others, or of giving an anonymous offering so that a child can go to a mission trip, or buying a devotional book for someone struggling with hurts in their lives, or of carting the food offerings to the local food bank.

The Spirit takes a backseat in the Trinity, content with supporting Jesus as He speaks to us, content with supporting us as we call out to Jesus, follow Him, and share Him with others. The Spirit never calls attention to Himself.

But He showers believers in Christ with gifts, including the courage to live past our fears and a reason for living, a vocation of pointing others to Christ, serving them in Jesus’ Name and inviting others to follow Christ, a vocation that lasts our whole lives.

Today, I want to tell you something you've probably not heard very often: Happy Pentecost!

May you keep in prayerful contact with the Holy Spirit so that you will have the courage to live past your fears and have a reason for living life--to be the hands of Christ, witnesses for Christ--every day of your life. Amen

The Heart of Worship

Love this song!

A Promise for the Sad Times and Beyond

"What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

"Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

"Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

"As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.'

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39)

'Too Much Rain' (Paul McCartney)

Take Notes Longhand

You'll remember more.

Everlasting Room and Board

Here.

Suffering and the Christian

[This was prepared to be shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, this past Sunday, June1.]

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
“I can see that this is coming as something of a surprise to you.”

Those were the words spoken to me by a cardiologist four years ago, after he’d told me that I’d had a heart attack that destroyed 40% of my heart.

I was surprised.

Actually I was shocked.

I had none of the so-called risk factors. And I had tried to take reasonably good care of myself over the years. But a heart attack had come anyway.

When I look back on the events of that June four years ago, though--the 3:00 in the morning trip to a hospital ER in excruciating pain, the news that Superman (how I’d always thought of myself health-wise) had, of all things, heart disease--I wonder why I was surprised.

Did I think that I was exempt from the human condition?

Yes, I think that I did.

I think, in fact, that we all entertain that delusion sometimes. We rubberneck Interstate accidents with two thoughts coming to the fore at the same time: “It could have been me.” And, “That’s what happens to other people; not me.”

At one level, we are aware of our vulnerability to suffering and pain and death.

At another, we live in denial of our vulnerability, of our humanity.



But we live in a fallen and imperfect world. We are born with the fatal of condition of inborn sin, inborn alienation from God, inborn separation from the source of life. That must, inevitably, lead to suffering and death for every human being who draws breath on this earth.

Jesus raised His friend Lazarus from the dead, but eventually, Lazarus would die again, because there can be no resurrection to eternal life with God as Jesus won on Easter Sunday until we all cross the the threshold of death as Jesus did on Good Friday. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead as a sign that He (and He alone as God in the flesh) has power over life and death. But Lazarus still had to die again.

In other words, none of us is exempt from suffering.

Now, it’s easy for Christians to accept that truth when it applies to the the non-believing world. After all, non-believers haven’t trusted in the grace and promises of the crucified and risen Jesus. They haven’t taken Jesus up on His offer to be with them always, to give them life and that abundantly, to hear and act on their prayers. But the notion that no one is exempt from suffering is a hard pill for Christians to accept about Christians, especially themselves.

When cartoonist Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown, learned that he had cancer, he was dumbfounded. “How could God have let this happen this to me?” he asked friends, according to a documentary I once watched on PBS. “I taught Sunday School for years.”

His reaction isn’t unique. To a greater or lesser extent, probably every Christian has wondered about why God has allowed their suffering--be it physical, relational, emotional--when they’ve tried so hard to be faithful.

The book of 1 Peter, from which today’s second lesson is drawn, takes on the question of human suffering, particularly the suffering of those who trust in the God revealed in Jesus Christ. It does so, in fact, more than any other book in the New Testament: 42 times in the 27 books of the New Testament a word which can be translated as suffering or sufferings appears; 12 of those times occur in the book of 1 Peter!

As we’ve mentioned before, the apostle Peter wrote this letter to be circulated among the churches in first-century Asia Minor, a region that basically encompasses today’s Turkey.

From the outset of the letter, Peter makes clear that he’s going to deal with the question of sufferings--and he always uses the plural of that word--the sufferings of Christians. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we don’t know if the Christians in Asia Minor were undergoing official persecution or simply the shunning of friends. But Peter may have had in mind much more than dealing with the opposition of other people to the Asia Minor Christians‘ faith, explaining perhaps the plural usage.

Even if he didn’t have all human suffering in mind, his words on the subject have application to us all, irrespective of the source of our sufferings.

Please take a look at the opening verses of the lesson, 1 Peter 4:12-14 (page 852 in the sanctuary Bible). Peter writes:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

For years, some scholars thought that the phrase “fiery ordeal” referred to the Roman punishment of burning Christians to death. But Peter’s letter was written years before that form of punishment was instituted.

Now, I think it’s clear that it refers to the metaphor of the purifying fire that would come to believers in the times before the Messiah, the Christ, fully established His kingdom. Psalm 66:10 refers to a moment of happiness and victory following a time of testing and pain when it says: “For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.”

“Don’t be surprised!” Peter is telling us, “when suffering and difficulties come to you. As you bear them with Christ at your side, He is using those moments of suffering and challenge to forge your character, to draw Him closer to you.”

Jesus makes clear in the Gospels that God isn’t the author of our suffering. Satan is.

But God can use the suffering of Christians to deepen our fellowship with God in this life and to ready us for life in eternity. 

And, Peter is telling us, Jesus Christ suffers with us.

And the One Who cried out from the cross, “My God, why have You forsaken me?” understands our questions, even when they can’t be answered on this side of eternity.

“Are you mad at God?” I asked a woman who was dying. “I was,” she said. “But I remember that Christ is always with me.”

The Christ Who suffered for you on His Good Friday is also the Christ Who will suffer with you on your Good Fridays, if you will let Him into your life.

That’s what Peter gets to in the latter part of our lesson, starting at 1 Peter 5:6:

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. [Even if this life is filled with the suffering which may come to human beings at any time in this world, we have the hope of resurrection life with Christ, where sufferings will be done and joy will be complete.] Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Listen: Following Jesus is not an insurance policy against the realities of this life. “In this world,” Jesus says to those who follow Him, “you will have trouble...” If that’s a promise we’d rather not have from Jesus, remember that there are other promises that go with that one.

One of those is referred to by Peter here when he says: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

The God made known to the world cares for you. Among all the little gods and godlets, the idols that have sprung from human imagination, in both ancient and modern times, none cared for human beings. The Greek and Roman idols from which Asia Minor Christians had been freed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, might, in the mythology about them, manipulate or use humans or fall in love with them or abuse them. But they didn’t care for human beings.

God though, the God Who made you in His image, does care for you, even when you sin. Romans 5:8 says: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Give your sins, along with your cares and your sufferings to Jesus. He will bathe you in the grace and forgiveness of God. He will stand with you. He will stand for you in the halls of heaven as you pray. 

In my thirty years as a pastor, it's been my observation that suffering can do one of two big things to people.

For those with shallow faith, the kind of faith that sees Jesus as a rabbit's foot, suffering alienates them from God and embitters them.

For others though, suffering acquaints them with their weakness...and with God's strength.

In Saint Matthew in Logan, where I last served, was a young woman named Sarah. She learned when she was thirteen that she had leukemia. She fought valiantly through seven years, two bone marrow transplants, and five relapses. Once, when she was in the ICU, observing how she held onto Christ, not as a good luck charm, but as her Lord, I asked if she would preach the following Easter Sunday. Later, she joked that since, at the time, she'd been under the influence of pain-killers, she'd said yes to my request. But it was a powerful moment for us all when Sarah did preach the following Easter and reminded us that our hope is in Christ alone.

You may remember that once, the apostle Paul was suffering from what he called "a thorn in the flesh." We have no idea what it was. But Paul reported that he asked God three different times to take it away. God said, "No. My grace is sufficient. I'm all you need." And God explained to Paul that His power is perfected in our weakness.

Why was Sarah's witness for Christ so powerful? Why are those who suffer and die with Christ by their sides always a more powerful presence in our lives than those who seem to have the world by the string and no need of God?

For one simple reason: It's only in those courageous enough to acknowledge their weakness and need and defeat in the face of life that the full power and grace and life of God can be seen!

It's only in those who understand their own vulnerability and humanity and mortality that the crucified and risen Jesus can be fully manifest and exercise His gracious Lordship over a life transformed by His love. (I hope someday to be such a person of faith!)

Suffering in this life shouldn’t surprise us. But, as we humble ourselves under the Lordship of Christ, we will be surprised by how He can carry us even through the valleys where death shadows us.

Paul, knowing that he would die for his faith in Christ after decades of sufferings and of fighting and wrestling with himself in order to stay faithful to the Lord Who had given forgiveness, life, and eternity to him as free gifts through Christ (the greatest struggles Christians face will be with themselves), wrote this to a young pastor named Timothy back in the first century: “...the time for my departure [my death] is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Peter's challenge us today is this: To own our weakness and so, let the power of Christ sustain us in this life and prepare us for the one to come. Amen

What Will He Be Like on the Clippers' Sidelines?

Steve Ballmer goes crazy in order to profess his love for the company from which he recently retired, some $20-billion richer.

It has to be an act; after all, who could love Microsoft?

But truly, this guy is obviously smart and aggressive, making me wonder how long he'll be satisfied with his franchise being a renter from the Lakers, losing out on the revenue an organization can generate from controlling its venue?

The Clippers will have to become a more consistently solid contending commodity before Ballmer or anyone else will be able to get a Clippers arena built, I think. Even with the $18-billion he has in his bank accounts, it's hard to believe he could take on the building of a new basketball venue on his own or from the revenues the Clippers (may) generate in the future.

But, I'm probably completely wrong. I'm a preacher; not a software mogul, Harvard graduate, or nearly-new NBA franchise owner.

BTW: One thing it's probably safe to say is that Ballmer won't be caught spewing racist rants and that's good.

This is Cool!

OK, I know I'm moderately OCD. (No guffawing, those of you who know me well.) But this video on how to fold a T-shirt is uber-cool!

Mega Promises!

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio on Sunday, May 25.]

John 14:15-21
In the first parish I served as pastor, a member was badly hurt in an accident. For some time, his life hung in the balance, meaning many hours waiting in the hospital for his family and friends. His wife had just given birth to their third child and was breastfeeding him. Because she needed to be at the hospital with her husband, this meant that she often retreated to a janitor's closet there, usually with her sister-in-law, to use a pump to get the milk to be sent back home to her son. While she did this, her sister-in-law read to her from the Bible, Christ in Our Home, and Guideposts magazine. Between readings, they would pray together. The women came to see the janitor's closet as a cherished spot, a place where they were sure they met God. They even gave the small closet a name. They called it The Pump and Pray Room.

Some people may hear that story and dismiss the women’s sense of God’s presence as an instance of two Christians talking themselves into a feeling. The women in their Pump and Pray Room, skeptics are likely to say, simply enjoyed one another’s company and the soothing words of Scripture. But, these skeptics would go on, they didn’t really meet God.

The follower of Jesus Christ would say otherwise.

And our saying so is more than wishful thinking.

Today’s Gospel lesson from John continues the words Jesus spoke to His disciples before His arrest. His ‘Farewell Discourse’ contained last minute instructions Jesus had for His followers as He looked ahead not just to His crucifixion and resurrection, but also to the days and years that would come after He ascended into heaven. Jesus wanted those first disciples—and you and me—to know that He would not leave His followers alone.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you,” He promises believers like you and me. When we face the uncertainties of life, when we make decisions, when we wonder whether God can love us when we sin, this is an awesome promise to hold onto. God will never leave us as orphans!

But how can it be true?

How is it that the risen and ascended Jesus can actually be with us now?

In our lesson for today, Jesus gives two mega-promises to believers, promises that should tell us that when Christians sense that they’re being helped, guided, or accompanied by God, they’re not suffering from religious delusions. They’re experiencing God’s presence meeting them at the points of their deepest need.

I’ll talk about those two promises in a moment. But before I do, I need to point out something important about this passage. You may have noticed it already. It begins and ends with a condition for the promises Jesus makes. At the beginning, Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commands.” At the end, He says the same thing in reverse order: “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.”

Now, folks, I don’t want to go too deeply into the woods of Biblical scholarship. But it’s worth pointing out that whenever you have two similar verses bracketing a section of Scripture like this, it forms what the scholars call an inclusion, or an inclusio. Everything sandwiched between the two verses is related to them or amplifies or explains them. Jesus used this inclusio when He spoke to the disciples in order to make an important point. Jesus wants us to know that He will be with those who keep His commands.

Now, be careful here. Jesus is not rescinding what the Bible calls grace. There isn’t a single one of Jesus’ promises that we either deserve or earn. Every one of Jesus’ promises and blessings are free gifts we cannot earn. So, instead of concluding that Jesus is throwing grace overboard here, we need to pay close attention to the verb Jesus uses in both of those bracket verses. He talks about those who keep His commands as being the ones who truly love Him. The word translated as keep is, in the original Greek, tereo. Among the meanings of that word are: watch over, pay attention to, hold dear.

None of us can perfectly fulfill the commands Jesus or the Scriptures give. But every time...

• you and I confess our sins together or in private, or
• strive to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, or
• forgive others as God forgives us, or
• serve others as Jesus serves us...

we are paying attention to, holding dear, Jesus’ command.

We are living out our love and gratitude to the Savior Who died on a cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us life.

We are, simply, giving first place in our lives to the Savior Who puts us first.

We are doing the hard work of loving Jesus, as Jesus has loved us, each day.

All of this--holding Jesus' commands dear, striving to live our lives like Jesus--is the precondition for the two mega-promises Jesus gives in today’s lesson.

So, what are those promises?

First, Jesus says, to those who love Him and keep His commands, He will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word translated as Advocate is paraclete. It means call alongside. The Holy Spirit comes alongside believers in Jesus and makes the presence and love and power of God unmistakably clear to them. Believers in Jesus can experience the presence of the Holy Spirit with alongside of them every single day.

Pastor Craig Barnes became ill soon after being called to serve as senior pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.. “I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer,” he told a magazine interviewer. “The elders and I were tempted to keep it a secret. But we told everybody, and soon many people were holding me before God in prayer. It was great to be spiritually ‘held’ by a congregation — it cast out fear. My illness has been a tremendous life-changing experience: I try to live in the gift of the day, and not count on tomorrow.”

You see what happened? Barnes owned his need and soon, a whole church was calling the Holy Spirit to come alongside him and his family. The Spirit, in turn, came alongside Craig Barnes and called out God's love and power into his life. The Spirit transformed his response to his illness...and his life!

The Holy Spirit can do similar work in our lives each day, assuring us of the presence and compassion of God whatever the conditions of our lives.

There’s a second promise in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus says, “I will come to you.” He goes on to say, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me…”

At one level, Jesus was telling His first followers that because they had believed in Him, because they had sought to love Him and keep His commands, they would see Him when He rose from the dead. Those who had rejected Him wouldn’t see Him.

But at another level, He was saying that in succeeding history, the people who dared to believe in Him, people like you and me, would also see Him. Not physically. But in their lives, they would recognize His presence. As Jesus told Thomas one week after Jesus had risen from the dead: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

For decades now, many western European and North American Biblical scholars, skeptical about the Bible, have engaged in what has been called “the quest for the historical Jesus.” Some of these scholars claim to be able to decide what portions of the Bible are true and which ones are not.

A few years ago, several of these scholars lamented the fact that, “African-American scholars really have taken no interest in the ongoing discussion of the historical Jesus. A black pastor [at the meeting where this lamentation was issued] got up and said, ‘I have been listening to you worrying about why our people aren’t really talking much about the historical Jesus. You know, it is not a big issue in the black church. Because, you see, we ALWAYS knew who Jesus was!’”

“We always knew,” he was saying, “that the risen Jesus is real and that He will not leave His people orphaned!”

No matter how many well-to-do white scholars with too much time on their hands and too much hubris in their souls to accept God’s ability to bring about resurrections and to give new life, Jesus’ promise stands for all who love Him and hold His commands dear. He will come to us. He will be with us!

Those who follow Jesus see Him working in their lives today because they know Who He is: God and Savior and the lover of their souls. They’ve been comforted by the presence of His Holy Spirit. When they call out to Him, they’ve experienced Jesus coming to them.

Jesus’ message for us today is, I think, simple: Put Jesus first in your life. He will send His Spirit to you and He will come to you. Even on the days when nothing makes sense, He will stand by you, filling you with life and peace. With Jesus, you will never be alone. Amen

Saturday Song #3: "Breakfast"

"When the toast is burned and all the milk has turned
And Captain Crunch is waving farewell
When the big one finds you, may this song remind you
That they don't serve breakfast in hell."

Hilarious...and good reminder.

Oldie from the Newsboys, melody by Peter Furler, lyrics by Steve Taylor.

Saturday Song #2: "Kiss Me"

Primarily known as a Christian band, Sixpence None the Richer took their turn at this sweet little love song. Leigh Nash's vocal is perfect.

Saturday Song #1: "Someone To Watch Over Me"

Like the Beatles' 'I Will,' this George and Ira Gershwin tune is a love song to some unknown love.

But this version by Frank Sinatra from the 1950s is so plaintive and emotional that Old Blue Eyes seems to turn the words into a plea to a very particular woman, someone he misses desperately. Or maybe he misses the chance at love with her he never had.

George Gershwin, of course, is one of the musical giants of the twentieth century. But the lyrics by his older brother, Ira, are always amazing too. After George's untimely death, Ira continued to his work as a lyricist with other composers.

Friday Night Tune #2: 'I Will'

A McCartney song from the Beatle's "white album." It's a love song to one who isn't yet a love.

Friday Night Tune #1: 'I Saw God Today'

From George Strait...

Frantic Sermon Friday Song #1: 'Dare I Say' by Peter Furler

As mentioned a few days back, you need to add Peter Furler's new CD, Sun and Shield, to your music collection. This is Track 3 of that set. Now, go to i Tunes or Amazon and have your faith and spirits boosted by getting this LP.

More on Heaven and Earth...This from C.S Lewis

"It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the [heavenly, eternal] world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither...

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next...

[With obvious reference to Hebrews 11 and to 1 Peter, among other passages of Scripture:] "[As a Christian,] I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press onto that other country and help others do the same."

[C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity]

Heaven and Earth

For the Christian, the hope of heaven isn't an escape from the realities of this world; the hope of heaven gives believers the power of heaven to face life in this world.

AUDIO: The Only Shepherd, the Only Gate

Here.

Remember Who You Are

[This was prepared to be shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, today.]

1 Peter 2:2-10
The story’s told of a young man who was settling into a dorm room for the first term of his freshman year of college. His parents had said their goodbyes. A bit later, he looked around his room and found a note on his bed. It was from his mom. “Dear Cameron,” it read, “Never forget who you are.”

Those few words weren’t meant to constrain a young man from growing and being transformed by his life and experiences and the things he would learn in college.

They were meant instead to remind him of his birthright, of the love of his family, and the character that had been forged within him in the first eighteen years of his life. "Don’t forget the person you have become before this day." "Don’t forget your identity when you face the disappointments, tests, and even temptations of adult life." "No matter the changes that lie ahead, keep drawing on the strength of who you are."

This, in a sense, is the message that the apostle Peter gives to the Christians living in first-century Asia Minor, which we find in today’s second lesson. “Never forget who you are as people saved by God’s charity--His grace--through your trust--your faith--in Jesus Christ,” Peter is saying.

The Christians to whom Peter wrote needed that reminder. They were facing some sort of persecution. What it was exactly, we can’t be sure. But whenever Christians face opposition in the world...whenever there are people telling us that faith in a risen Savior is foolish...or the world claims that living life God’s way, rather than the world’s way is naive...or when people tell us that when you’re dead, you’re dead, Christians desperately need to remember who they are and how they came to be who they are.

It’s in the remembering, that we can be re-membered to who Christ has made us to be.

Just before our lesson for this morning, Peter shared thoughts in a section that some label, a “call to holy living.” This, Peter was saying in that section, is how you live when you’re grateful that God doesn’t judge you on the basis of the good or bad you do or the good you don’t do, when you’re grateful for God’s undeserved grace. In the verse immediately before our lesson, he writes: “...rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind." In other words, get rid of your sin by confessing it and letting the Savior Jesus take it off of your shoulders and letting the Holy Spirit help you to avoid committing the same sins over and over again. (Although I must confess my own penchant for committing the same sins and having to repent for them repeatedly, a testimony to God's grace and patience!)

Let’s look at what Peter writes next in the words that make up our second lesson, 1 Peter 2:2-10 (pages 850-851 in the sanctuary Bible): “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Spiritual milk here is the word about Jesus, the word that God’s heart breaks at the thought of losing any one of us because of the sin we inherit at birth and so, He decided to become a human servant among us to die and to rise and to give a new and eternal relationship with God to all who repent and believe in Christ.

We never grow so old or advanced in our faith as to not need to keep craving the life-changing power of that word.

I once met a couple who had both grown up in Christian homes. In fact, both were preachers’ kids. But they’d forgotten who they were. They stopped feasting on the message of hope in Jesus. They’d both made a lot of mistakes. And, contrary to the will of God, they were living together without benefit of the marriage covenant.

I liked them and, as I sat in their living room, I worked up the courage to ask them: “How do you feel about God?”

“I love God,” the man replied with feeling. “But I don’t have much room for him right now.”

Listen: No matter how far you and I may wander from the God we know in Christ, no matter how little room you may think you have for God in your life, He always has room for you.

It’s a matter of remembering who we are as the result of our Baptism--children of God--and craving for the power of the Gospel to be at the center of our lives again.

And that's a power that can transform each day we live on this earth, as well as our eternities. “...I am not ashamed of the gospel,” Paul writes in Romans 1:16, “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes...”

Keep craving the spiritual milk of Jesus and His Gospel, Peter says. The message that changed you from God’s enemies to God’s friends will also keep your hope and confidence in God alive. Remember who you are.

Peter goes on in verse 4: “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

In Jewish and Christian thought, “the Stone” was another title for the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed king and savior God promised hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. Psalm 118:22-23 had predicted, in fact, that the world would reject the Stone, would reject Jesus.

The reasons people rejected Jesus then--the reasons that people reject Him today...the reasons I once rejected Him--boil down to really just one. As a friend once told me, explaining why he wasn’t a Christian: “I want to build my own life and I don’t think that Jesus can do that for me.” He might have said that he didn’t want Jesus to build his life because the moment you let Jesus take over building your life is the moment you cede control of the direction of your life to Him.

Jesus will take those who turn to Him away from death, toward life.

Away from separation from God, toward fellowship with God.

Away from futility, toward purpose, meaning, significance.

When, throughout our lives as followers of Christ, we lay down our sinful rebellion, remembering who who we are by God’s grace and surrendering to the truth that the One Who made us and bought us back from sin and death through the blood of His Son might have a better idea of how we tick, we experience peace.

When the life of the living Stone enters into us, we become living stones--or, as Martin Luther put it, we become little Christs--the life death, and resurrection are re-enacted within us.

And like Christ, Who offered Himself for us, we offer the only acceptable sacrifice to Him, ourselves...in humble acknowledgement of our need of Him. “My sacrifice, O God,” King David writes in Psalm 51:17, “is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

In verses 6 through 8, Peter quotes several passages from the Old Testament about the Stone, the Messiah. The upshot is that those who obey the message of the Gospel--who believe in the the good news of Jesus Christ--live. But those who disobey it--who refuse to trust the God Who, in Christ, holds the outstretched hand of love, forgiveness, and new life to all who believe, stumble over the living Stone.

By the way, Peter isn’t saying in verse 8, that some people are destined to be saved, while others aren’t. He’s saying that those who refuse Jesus are destined for separation from God.

If you’re drowning in a flood and refuse the help of a rescuer, it isn’t the would-be rescuer who sealed your fate, your destiny.

Romans 8:1 reminds us: “...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...” And, as we mentioned a few weeks ago, Jesus Himself said: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Next in today’s second lesson, Peter wraps things up in a big bow, verses 9 and 10: “...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

When you get caught up in the problems and controversies, the tragedies and temptations of this life, when sin gets hold of you and threatens to pull you under, remember who you are: You are God’s people.

Christ died and rose to make it so.

And He’s given you a mission, a purpose for living: You’re to pass the message on about how God called you from the darkness of sin, death, and futility to live in the light of His love and power permeating even your darkest and most difficult moments.

Once, Peter says, we were not people, nobodies, phantoms roaming this earth without hope.

But now we are people, somebodies, children of God called by name by God.

Our names are written in the book of life for eternity.

And, by grace through faith in Christ, we are beneficiaries of the promise of Jesus...

• a promise good in classrooms and labs,
• office cubicles and construction sites,
• in funeral homes and intensive care units,
• in marriage beds and baby nurseries,
• on athletic fields and concert stages,
• anywhere we live...

the promise is for those who believe and it’s like a blank check from Jesus ready for us to cash again and again every day. It’s the promise He gives in Matthew 28:20: “I am with you always.”

That’s Jesus’ promise to you and me. And it’s worth remembering and worth re-membering ourselves to Christ and His body, the Church, every moment of every day.

Remember always who you are through Jesus Christ, children of God! Amen

Serious Sermon Saturday Song #5: I Just Wanna Know

Steve Taylor, simply the best. Glad that he's back into the musical scene after a nearly twenty year absence. We needed him!

Serious Sermon Saturday #4: Sun and Shield

The title track from the Peter Furler Band's fantastic and musically eclectic new LP...go to Amazon or iTunes and get it right now!

Serious Sermon Saturday Song #3: Pride (In the Name of Love)

Going into the wayback machine with U2...

Serious Sermon Saturday Song #2: The Right Wrong Girl

from Peter Furler

Serious Sermon Saturday Song #1: All Because of You

All Because of You by U2

The Only Shepherd, the Only Gate

[This was prepared to be shared during worship on Sunday, May 11, with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio.]

John 10:1-10
I once saw video clips of a TV talk show host holding forth on spiritual issues. She assured people, for example, that sin doesn’t exist. She also claimed, several times in several ways, that all religions and spiritual quests may lead people to God. These are widespread beliefs today. But are they true? Well, not according to Jesus. And in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus uses two illustrations to point us to Who He is and to the relationship with God that you and I…and every person on the planet…can have through Him. But only through Him. Jesus calls Himself a shepherd and a gate. More on that in a moment.

First though, we must establish the context for these illustrations. How is it that Jesus came to speak the words we find in John 10:1-10? It all started when Jesus gave sight to a blind man in John 9. It aroused controversy because Jesus had the temerity to do the loving will of God on a Sabbath day. The Pharisees accused Jesus of doing work when He shouldn’t have. It made them so angry when the blind man declared that Jesus, in spite of this Sabbath violation, must be from God, that they excommunicated the guy.

Now, at one level, the Pharisees were nothing like the contemporary talk show host. Unlike that host, who seems to say that any religious belief will get you to God, the Pharisees believed that only by abiding by their extensive lists of religious rules could one be right with God. They differed in other ways as well. But, based on both the Old and New Testaments, both the host and the Pharisees have one big thing in common. They are equally wrong.

Over the centuries, starting with a desert people to whom God gave a land and a promise that they would become a light to all the nations, through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of a Man Who showed Himself to be God in the flesh, God has revealed Himself and His plan for the human race. From the beginning, the plan for a right relationship with God and for a life with Him that lasts forever has been the same. We are simply to believe in Him and only in Him. Genesis says that Abraham, the patriarch of Biblical faith, believed in God and God’s promises and that God “reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Abraham was right with God through belief in God.

Now, the New Testament shows us that God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us, for example: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” All who turn from sin and believe in Jesus, God in the flesh, have the same blessings enjoyed by Abraham, rightness with God and life in His Name.

As we said when we were talking about the first building block of our discipleship, it isn’t because God is an egomaniac or because God wants to establish an exclusive club that the first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods.” It’s that God wants to give us life and only He can give it. All other roads are dead ends, literally. And we can only know God through Jesus Christ.

In today’s lesson, Jesus is trying to convey this truth to the Pharisees and others who may be listening to Him, the truth that salvation comes to those with faith in the God revealed to Israel and ultimately, in Him.

So, first He tells them that He is the shepherd. Only Jesus can lead us into God’s sheepfold. People who try to get into the kingdom of God by other means are, Jesus says, thieves and bandits. He says: “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

Sheep are pretty dumb creatures. But if a stranger comes among them, they will en masse, move away, alarmed. Once a person familiar to them shows up, they relax, knowing that this person won’t lead them astray. They respond to the voice of the shepherd who takes care of them. We may be brighter than sheep. But that’s not very different from us. Have you ever noticed how you can hear the voice of someone with whom you’re close even in a crowded, noisy place? Both of our kids were in a 100-plus-voice choir in high school. I can remember when we accompanied the kids on a concert tour in England. I particularly remember listening to them during a performance in the Milennium Dome in London. If I perked my ear just right, I could hear both of the kids’ voices in the midst of the others. You can dial into the voices of those you love and those you know love you.

When you allow the God we know in Jesus Christ to communicate with you through His Word, the Bible, through prayer, through the fellowship of other believers, and through Holy Communion, you begin to know His voice. You go to Him when He calls you. And when other voices call you to walk away from God’s will, you ignore them.

Jesus, our Gospel lesson tells us, called Himself the shepherd of God’s sheep. But his listeners “did not understand what he was telling them.” So, like many a frustrated communicator, Jesus tried another illustration to make His point. Now, He wasn’t a shepherd. “Very truly,” He says, “I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief [which can include perfectly nice people who follow some other path in life, like the misguided and misguiding talk show host] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.“

Jesus is the gate to eternity. Years ago, we got locked out of our house. I went to every single first floor window and door and couldn’t find a way to break into our own place. Finally, I came to the last possible window. I stretched up and could tell that this one, leading into the dining room, which set more than six feet off the ground, was slightly ajar. If I could hoist myself up, I might be able to slide the window open, throw myself into the house, and then let Ann in. The previous occupants had left behind half of an old pickle barrel they'd used as a planter. It wasn’t very big. But by standing on it and letting Ann push me from behind, I was able to throw myself through the window. I was halfway into the house, my legs still hanging outside, Ann no longer able to help me, when a thought crossed my mind: How would I explain this to a passing cop? You see, if you belong somewhere, you don’t have to break in. You go through the front door.

Some people think that getting to God happens as the result of a long spiritual quest. The Christian life does have its challenges. And growing in faith and just holding onto Christ in this life, requires us to adopt spiritual disciplines like prayer, study of Scripture, involvement in Christian service, mutual accountability to other Christian. On top of that, even if we’re growing spiritually, we know that belonging to Jesus doesn’t insulate us from the difficulties of this life. And sometimes, as our second lesson for today points out, we face rejection precisely because we follow Jesus.

But we know too, that Jesus is the front door, the only door—the only gate—to life with God, to the abundant, everlasting life that God wants to give to all people. The real quest of the Christian life is to get to know God, which isn’t an onerous task, but a joy as wonderful as falling in love.

Jesus once told Philip and the other disciples, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will know the Father also…”

After mouthing the famous words of John 3:16, He told Nicodemus, “…God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Those who believe in Him [that is, in Jesus] are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the Name of the only Son of God.”

And after Jesus became the only Savior in the history of the world to die and rise so that all who believe in Him will not suffer the consequences of our sin, eternal separation from God, His first followers proclaimed the same message about Jesus. When the religious authorities in Jerusalem arrested the apostles Peter and John for bringing healing to a man in Jesus’ Name, the two disciples told them, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

Jesus is the good shepherd and He is the gate—the front door—to eternity. Let yourself get to know Him better. As you do, you’ll hear His voice over the din of an often confusing world and He will lead you to a life prepared for you, a life that never ends, a life filled with the presence of God.

Fear God? (AUDIO version)

Here.

Fear God?

[This was prepared to be shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, today.]

1 Peter 1:17-25
When I was a boy, up until I was about age thirteen, I was, in a phrase often used by members of my parent's generation, "a pistol." But by the time I turned thirteen, a change had come. I was obedient to my parents. I wasn’t perfect by any means. And I’m still not. But when I hit my teens, my parents weren’t always wondering whether they could trade me in for a new model.

The reason for this transformation, I think, was simple: I feared my father.

I don’t mean that I was afraid of how he might punish me. I was afraid of hurting him, of angering him, and of disappointing him because I knew how much he loved me. My fear was born of my gratitude to my father. My dad and I didn’t always see eye to eye and we still don’t and he was far from perfect, but I always knew that, at least in relationship with the world outside our doors, he had my back.

So that later, when at age 18, I went to work in the factory where he was a time study man, I tried to work hard and reflect well on dad.

And when I was a young man, borrowing the car to go out with a girl, I paid attention to dad when he would remind me, “Remember, she’s a person too.” 

I grieve for those people who grew up without knowing that at least one of their parents always had their backs. I grieve because it’s a hard and hurtful way to be introduced to the world. And I grieve too, because it’s hard for a person to trust the One we Christians call “our Father in heaven,” when the only father they’ve ever had was so untrustworthy.

Now I’ve spent time painting this picture of my father because, I hope, it will help us all understand what the apostle Peter is getting at in today’s lesson.  

Peter wrote this letter to churches in Asia Minor, a region of the world which today is basically Turkey. There’s some dispute among scholars as to the nature of the experiences which the Christians to whom Peter wrote were then undergoing. Some scholars say the Asia Minor Christians were suffering outright government persecution and the threat of death. Others insist that they were people--like Jews who had come to faith in Christ--who were undergoing pressure from their families and friends to renounce Christ.

Whatever opposition the Christians in Asia Minor were suffering--persecution, pressure from loved ones and friends, or the simple allure of conforming to their own desires rather than the will of God, Peter wanted to remind them of the faithfulness of the Father Who had sent His Son Jesus to die for them and their sins, then rose for them to open up forgiven, eternal life to those who trust in Christ.

And he also wanted them to see that trust in God is lived out each day in the decisions we make, the actions we take, and the things we’d like to do, but refuse to do or that, in moments of disconnectedness from God, we may do, for which we repent.

Peter’s encouragement to a group of first century Christians is something you and I need today. So, please go to our second lesson for today, 1 Peter 1:17-25 (page 850 in the sanctuary Bibles).

It begins: “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” This verse really is the whole ballgame in understanding today's lesson. So, we'll spend some time unpacking it.

First, Peter calls God the Father.

Now, God is called Father in only a few places in the Old Testament, although in the years before Jesus was born, some Jews had taken to referring to God in this way.

But when Jesus came along, He not only called God Father, He did so by using the most intimate term for Father in Aramaic, the language he used every day. He called the Father Abba, basically meaning daddy.

Even more stunningly, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus told all who believe in Him, to think of God the Father as their dad.

He’s the Dad Who’s got His children’s backs. Through Jesus, we know that our heavenly Father really is with us always!

Good dads and good moms, no matter how much they love us, are only a fraction as loving as our heavenly Father.

Second, in this one verse, Peter tells us that our Father will also judge each person’s work impartially.

Lutherans, your ears should perk up when you hear phrases like this. You may be thinking, we're saved by grace, not by our works.

But let’s be clear, Peter is not saying that we are saved by our works. The word Peter uses which is translated as work in our Bibles has the idea of the whole content, the whole flow of our life’s works and motives, not a single work or set of works.

Every one of us sins every day. God knows our imperfections. He understands that we never get this Christian thing completely right.

That's why God, our compassionate Father, judges those who trust in Christ, however imperfectly, by the intentions of our hearts. He judges us by that in which we repose our ultimate hope.

Christians know not to place their trust in themselves, or their money, or their accomplishments, or their religiosity, but in Jesus Christ alone.

When they do that...when we do that...it changes how we live our lives, it prompts us to lives and service rendered in Christ’s Name, no matter what pressures or temptations we may face.

Our work in this life is not to negotiate a set of religious requirements, but to trust in Christ, to follow Him always, and, whenever we lose our ways, to follow Him again. When we do that, God will show us the way.

Jesus was once asked: “What must we do to do the works God requires?" In John 6:29, Jesus answers: "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

Trust the One Who has offered you eternity and peace with God through Me, Jesus is saying, and He will so infect your life with gratitude and holy fear, you will live this life and eternity differently.

Ephesians 2:8-10 tells believers in Christ: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Trust the Father and keeping trusting the Father you know through Jesus and His love will change how you live, often without your even knowing it.
 
And the third major point I draw from this one verse in today's second lesson is this: We’re to live our lives as followers of Christ, knowing that we are foreigners to this world.

As we mentioned last Sunday, through our faith in Christ, we’ve been made new. We’re not a part of this dying world.

When the things of this world die, they die. When we who trust in Christ die, we rise.

Peter wants to remind us not to get too comfortable with this world...and not to pay too much attention to what a dying world thinks is important.

That sets the table for what Peter says in verses 18-21. They speak clearly to we Christians today in 2014: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold [things that the world values] that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,  but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. [If you have your Bibles with you today, underline those words, please.] He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him [that is, through Jesus] you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

In John 14:9, Jesus tells the apostle Philip: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

And in John 10:30, Jesus says: “I and the Father are one.”

Through Jesus, you and I know God the Father.

We know how much He loves us.

We know that we can trust Him.

And because of that love, we can have intimacy with God.

We know that God has our backs.

Throughout Martin Luther’s explanation of the Ten Commandments in The Small Catechism, he says of believers, “We are to fear and love God so that...”

Some people read those words and are disturbed. They think it means that God is cruel and capricious, that we have to try to please Him to prevent Him from sending us to fiery hell without access to air conditioning.

But this is what we know through Jesus: God isn’t out to get you. He hates your sin. He hates my sin. But He loves you and He loves me.

He sent Jesus to rescue us from ourselves and from the eternal condemnation we deserve. That rescue comes to us when we trust in Christ as our God and our only Savior.

To fear God is to be filled with gratitude for His love and grace, to fear nothing so much as hurting the feelings of the One Who has loved and still loves you and me more than any person we’ve ever known.

Through your faith in Christ, God has become your Father.

Our call is to follow and live for Him alone. May God help us to do that. Amen

"Please Use This Song in Your Commercial"

Four of us were talking the other day about how hard it is for new musical acts to break through to a mass audience these days. In the past, of course, there were a few media gatekeepers--big record companies, big broadcast networks, and such, who guarded access to audiences. But now, with Internet, satellite networks, and that so yesterday cable TV, there really aren't mass audiences, just narrow bands of small splinter groups of consumers.

The best way for musical artists to "hit paydirt" these days, it seems, isn't to get "airplay," but to get their songs into commercials. Even artists like Paul McCartney, who once made "principled stands" against having their songs featured in advertising, have long since relented. Jon Lajoie gets it and shows it in this funny music video.

What Will You Do with Your New Beginning?

[This was prepared to be shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, last weekend.]

John 20:19-31
Everybody knows about the excitement that comes when you finally reach long-awaited new beginnings.

People count down the years, months, and days until high school, college, and graduate school graduations.

Couples and their families count down the moments until woman and man say, “I do.”

Expectant parents count down the passing months and days until the due dates.

Old friends keep track of the moments until they get to see each other again.

Job applicants are wracked with nervousness until they’re offered the perfect position for which they've been waiting.

In this time-bound world, it’s truly amazing when long-awaited, prayed-for, days come. When they do, there’s excitement, relief, celebration, jubilation...and apprehension, maybe even fear.

That’s because new beginnings always present us with a question: What  now? What do we do with a life that’s been changed by the new degree, the new husband, the new wife, the new career, the new child, the new love?

We rightly feel that it would be contemptuous of a long-awaited gift to do nothing with it.

Imagine a couple saying, “I do” in a ceremony before God and human beings and then parting ways, going on with separate lives.

Or parents thrilled by the birth of a new baby deciding to walk away from the hospital without their child.

When new beginnings come our way, we may not be certain about what to do with them, but we know, deep in our souls, that doing nothing is not an option.

And, in that same place in our souls, we know that we want whatever we do with our new beginnings to be the right thing. We don’t want to mess it up.

Our Gospel lesson for this morning is John 20:19-31. We’re going to focus on verses 19-23. These verses reverberate with the echoes of the first three chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 to 3, where we’re told about God’s creation of the universe, the very first new beginnings of the earth and the heavens.

There, God’s breath or Spirit moves over the deep and life comes into being. A new beginning.

There too, God’s breath or Spirit--it’s the same word in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament and the same word in Greek, the language of the New Testament--God’s breath or Spirit are infused into an incipient man and Adam becomes a living being. A new beginning.

A wonderful beginning. But later, in Genesis 6:6,  after Adam and Eve and their descendants fell into sin, we’re told that God regretted ever giving beginning to human beings.

Regretted, yes. But even then, God didn’t give up on the descendants of Adam and Eve. God hasn't given up on you and me. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus bore our death sentence for sin so that when He rose, those who dare to believe in Him will have new beginnings, life with God for eternity.

Look please at the opening verse of our lesson. It says: “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’"

It’s the Easter Sunday of Jesus’ resurrection, an amazing event. But Jesus’ resurrection is more than a neat trick by God. Easter is more than just Jesus beating death for Himself. This is what John is emphasizing by calling the first Easter, “the first day of the week.” For the creation and for us all, God, through Jesus, has brought to a world that spent centuries waiting for it, a new beginning to those who will trust in Christ.

But if it’s a new beginning, the disciples, Jesus’ followers, didn’t know what to do with it. They’d gotten word from several people that Jesus had risen and was alive.

The day and its message should have changed everything for them. Yet here they were, gathered for fear of their country’s religious leaders, behind locked doors.

They belonged to a risen, living Savior. But they were acting like people without hope, without the help of a powerful, death-destroying God. They were intent on hiding, afraid to venture out into the world.

That's not very different from us in the modern Church, really: We sing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” "Here I am, Lord...I will go, Lord, where You send me," or “Forever, author of Salvation He rose and conquered the grave,” yet we remain ensconced in our Christian ghettos, our holy huddles, afraid to leave the comfort zones we enjoy in our liturgies and songs and in our small groups and fellowship meals.

It may be true that our world is going to hell in a hand-basket. But part of the reason for that is that many Christians, like the first disciples on the evening of the first Easter, stay scrummed in fear in their little locked lives.

Folks: This is not what God means for us to do with the new beginnings He gives us through the risen Jesus Christ.

We see that in what happens next in our lesson. Look at verse 20: “[After Jesus had declared His peace on them] he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’" 



During the time He spent with the disciples before His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus had spoken of being sent to the world by His Father. He was sent, He said in different places, to bear witness to God’s truth, sent to die and to rise.

This truth and Jesus’ death and resurrection were all about giving us new beginnings. “...if anyone is in Christ,” we’re told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

It would be contemptuous of the new beginnings that Jesus expended His life, suffering, blood, and death to bring us not to do something with it. 



And Jesus is clear about what He wants us to do with the gift of our new and eternal beginnings--with our lives as the new creations you and I have become through faith in Him: We’re to go where He sends us.

Out of our locked and self-protective rooms.

Out of the safety of the known and into the unknown world.

After all, if you know you belong to a living Lord Who has already given eternity to you, why should you be afraid of anything this world might do to you?

As David wrote in Psalm 27: “The LORD is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid?”

Actually, it would be a frightening thing to go into the world to tell others about Jesus, to personally witness to a friend, to get involved with a kindness outreach, to go on a mission trip, or to invite a friend to a Bible study, just to name a few examples, if Jesus expected us to do any of these things on our own. But wherever Jesus sends us, we never go alone.

Please look at verses 22 and 23: “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’"

The risen Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, breathes on His Church, on those who believe in Him, and they’re filled with the endless, infinite life of God, the same Spirit that brought the universe into being, that God breathed into Adam. And it’s the Spirit of the God Who has, for all who trust in Christ, put death in our rear-view mirrors.

God’s Spirit, the breath of God, comes to us when we are baptized, when we repent and confess our faith again, when we call out in helplessness to God in Jesus’ Name. 


Because of the new beginnings Christ gives to us--beginnings that not even death can end, we can live this life with boldness and confidence and hope.

In the power of Jesus living in us, we can do something with our new beginnings.

We can live.

And we can share the precious message that has changed us forever with a world that needs the same liberation from fear Jesus has given to us. Amen

Peace and Hope in Dying

I like this.

Easter: Did He Rise? What Does It Matter If He Did?

[This was prepared for delivery during the worship celebrations of Living Water Lutheran Church, Springboro, Ohio, this past Sunday, April 20, Easter Sunday.]

Matthew 28:1-10
On this Easter Sunday morning, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, I want to consider two simple questions:

• Did Jesus really rise from the dead on the first Easter? 
• And what difference does it make to us if He did?

We live in a skeptical age. The so-called “New Atheists,” people who not only adamantly reject the existence of God, but also reject all truth claims made by the Bible, are given great prominence these days.

Even within the Church, there are theologians who claim that Jesus was not physically raised from the dead, that what the first disciples called “the resurrection” was only their subjective experience of the dead Savior’s presence in their memories. Or, they say that the early disciples experienced a mass hallucination even though psychology tells us that such a phenomenon is impossible.

And truth be known, even the most pious and convinced of believers have their moments of doubt.

But let’s be clear: If Jesus didn’t actually physically rise from the dead, we may as well pack up, go home, and eat our Easter dinners right now.

And if we're part of the church just to feel good or to help us through this life, we've got it all wrong.

In the first century, the apostle Paul wrote this to church members in the Greek city of Corinth: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”

Through the centuries and still today, some read or hear the words of Paul or those of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and dismiss it all.

A then-fifth grader in my former congregation told me once that a classmate of his, no doubt echoing words he’d heard at home, didn’t believe in God or in Jesus. The kid said that Christianity was all a big conspiracy.

So, what do we say to such assertions? Is Easter and the faith that is built on it all a big conspiracy? Or is it the truth?

Let’s consider the evidence. Please look at our Gospel lesson for today, Matthew 28:1-10. (You’ll find it on page 698 in the sanctuary Bibles.)

Anyone who takes the time to lay out the four Gospels’ different accounts of the first Easter side by side will see differences: different women are named among those who went to the tomb; Matthew says that the women simply went to see the tomb, while other gospels say they went to anoint Jesus’ body; and there are other differences. But these differences shouldn’t bother us. They should, in fact, help convince us that the report of Jesus’ resurrection was no conspiracy, but the truth. As one New Testament scholar has said, “a calculated deception should have [caused the conspirators to agree on the details of the resurrection story]. Instead, there seem to have been competitors: 'I saw him first!' 'No! I did.'” That makes their common story that Jesus rose from the dead more likely to be true!

Now look at Matthew 28, verse 1, please. It says: “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.”

The Jewish sabbath, of course, runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. As our lesson begins, the sun is rising.

The women went to the tomb with no expectations of finding any good news. They had watched Jesus die. Like billions of people who have lost good friends or loved ones, they went to the cemetery only to pay their respects, to grieve and, maybe, to remember together. Jesus’ promise that He would rise again, if they thought of it at all, would have seemed like a fairy tale memory to them.

The fact that the women who went to the tomb didn’t expect to see evidence of Jesus’ resurrection ought to make us give credibility to their later saying that Jesus, once dead, was alive again.

Now look at verses 2 through 7. It says:

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

Notice to whom this news—the greatest news in the history of the world—is being given: women. In patriarchal, male-dominated first century Judea, the testimony of women wasn’t considered valid. A woman couldn't testify in court, because women were deemed by that society to be unreliable.

If the first Christians had made up the story of Jesus’ resurrection—if Easter was one big conspiracy, they certainly would have been shrewd enough to say that men were the first to meet the angel at the empty tomb and not women whose word would be automatically dismissed by that society.

It was poor marketing in the first century world for Christians have to admit that, in fact, women were the first to see Jesus risen from the dead. This too, is a powerful proof that there was no Easter conspiracy.

Please see what happens next in Matthew 28:8-10:

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

None of Jesus’ first followers ever claimed to have seen the precise moment when the corpse of Jesus came back to life. Instead, they all said that they were shown an empty tomb and like us, were asked to dare to trust that the Savior Who had never once lied to them was good for a promise He had made, that He would rise again.

It was only after the women at the empty tomb chose to be open to believing and chose to act on the angel’s message that they saw the risen Jesus.

When it comes to faith in God, you and I cannot fold our arms and demand that God prove Himself to us.

Nor will God ever force us to trust in Him.

We must be willing to believe. It’s then and only then that we will begin to believe. It’s only then that God’s Holy Spirit can build faith within us.

In faith, seeing is not believing; believing is seeing!

So, did it really happen? Did Jesus really rise from the dead on the first Easter Sunday? The evidence, I think, indicates that He did.

But, even if we find the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection convincing, the resurrection will still be nothing more than a bit of trivia or a blip on our calendars unless we, like the women met by the angel at the empty tomb, dare to believe—to trust our whole lives to Christ—and dare to act on that belief.

And listen: As a former atheist myself, I can tell you that God will give you faith in the risen Jesus if only, like the women at the empty tomb, you are willing to believe.

In his book, The Power of a Whisper, Pastor Bill Hybels tells of being with a group of pastors and asking them how they had come to faith in the risen Jesus. One pastor said that he grew up in an non-churchgoing home, his parents deeply hostile to Christ and the Church.

Next door was a couple who believed in Jesus, were active in a local congregation, and sensed that God wanted them to invite their neighbors to church.

So, one day, they came to that young boy’s home and invited his family to worship with them. The parents were venomous in their response to the invitation, “We want nothing to do with your God…[or] your church…[or] you.”

But their son said, “Hey, Dad. I’ll go.” The parents thought to themselves, “Free babysitting!” So, they let junior go to church.

All through that boy’s junior high years, the neighbors took him to church Sunday in, Sunday out. While in high school, he surrendered his life to Christ.

Later, he became a pastor and started a church on the East Coast, which today welcomes thousands of worshipers each week, changing lives and bringing the peace of the risen Jesus Christ in facing and living in this world this world and the hope of eternity with God beyond the grave through the risen Jesus.

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! It really happened and He can change the lives and eternities of all who repent, that is, turn from sin, and believe in Him.

If you’ve come here this morning, not really certain about what you thought of Jesus and His resurrection, and you find yourself wanting Him in your life, I promise you that He wants the same thing. He wants life with you.

If you’re willing to let Him in, He can be right there with you in all the times of your life--the good and joyous, the hard and sad, and every place in between. He can give your life meaning and purpose.

And, when, like Jesus Himself, you cross the threshold of death, He will be holding you and He will raise you to life again to be with God for eternity. If you want Jesus today, just tell Him.

If you’d like a little help in either getting started in a life with Jesus or in renewing that life, you’ll see people with blue lapel badges around today. They will be happy to pray with you, share a bit with you. They’ll also ask you if you’d like a call from me this week. If you’re not a Living Water member or you don’t live in this area, please know that I won’t be phoning you to try to get you to join this church, though people are certainly welcome to take instruction and check us out. Instead, we simply want you to experience the power and blessings of the risen Jesus every day of your life, the way we do day in and day out. We want you to have eternal life with God. It happens through Jesus, the One Who rose on the first Easter.

To paraphrase the angel at the tomb, “This my message for you,” the message of new life through the risen One, Jesus. It’s God’s message for you and all the world. It can change a life for eternity. Let it change yours. Amen!

Easter Welcome

With each Church Season, our congregation's weekly bulletin has a special welcome for visitors. Here's what will appear this coming week, with the Second Sunday of Easter:

Welcome to Living Water Lutheran Church!

We’re pleased to welcome you during this Easter season, which this year began on April 20 and ends on May 25.

Throughout this season, we remember the greatest event in history--Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead--and what it means for our lives today and our lives in eternity.

Living Water is a congregation dedicated to spreading the good news of Easter by our words and our actions. That good news, very simply, is that God has conquered our common enemies as people sin, death, and meaningless living, through Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from death. All who will daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Jesus share in His victory over these enemies. Jesus promises in Matthew 24:13: “...the one who endures to the end [in faithfulness to Christ] will be saved.”

In gratitude for the free gift of new life given to believers in Jesus and from the love of neighbor that God’s Holy Spirit seeks to build within His people, Living Water undertakes a lot of exciting ministries. These include housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, working with other churches to provide Christian sports experiences to young people, and help in rebuilding people’s lives. We do that throughout our church’s service area, which runs from Beavercreek to Lebanon, in Dayton, and in places like Haiti and Memphis, where mission teams of our congregation’s members often go.

Living Water is committed to building its life on three key commands of Jesus. We seek to: love God; love our neighbors as we love ourselves; love our fellow Christians as Christ has loved us; make new followers of Jesus by spreading the good news of the Easter story; and personally grow in our relationship with Christ each day.

We hope and pray that you will feel welcomed by the people of Living Water and that you will plan on being with us again soon.

Happy Easter!

Sad Beginning to Holy Week and Passover

How horrible that with Passover just two days away and Holy Week beginning yesterday, a white supremacist killed three people at a Jewish community center in Kansas City.

Jesus summarized Old Testament law when He said that the greatest commandment included loving God completely and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

May God teach us to love.

Perfect Comfort from the Perfect Savior

He feared what this life in our world can do to a person.

See here too.

Not the King We Want...the King We Need

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, this morning.]

Palm Sunday
Matthew 21:1-11

I once preached at a church in Germany. I delivered my sermon in English and it was translated for me. But the hardest part of the service came when, at the insistence of the host pastor, I helped lead the congregation in reading the Psalm responsively. I somehow got through the service and afterward, several of the German congregants asked me, since I spoke German so fluently, why I hadn’t given the sermon in German too. I had to explain that I’d spoken the Psalm phonetically and hadn’t really understood many of the words.

It’s possible to know the words we say without knowing what we’re saying. How often do we, on Sunday mornings recite the Apostles’ Creed or the Lord’s Prayer with little thought as to what we’re confessing or praying? More often than we might want to admit, I’ll bet.

The crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday said words that came from Psalm 118. “Hosanna [a word that means Save, please] Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

They were the right words to use in welcoming the King of kings. But they clearly didn’t really understand what it means for God to save us or to answer our prayers: A few days later, this crowd would turn on Jesus, along with the rest of the world, and cry for Him to be executed on a cross. In the end, Jesus wasn’t what the crowd was looking for. I wonder sometimes if Jesus--the real Jesus--is what you and I are looking for.

The crowd that welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday saw Jesus as a means to their ends. They wanted Jesus to lead a rebellion against their Roman conquerors. They wanted some of the money that the extortionist tax collectors were constantly taking from them. They wanted Jesus to be their king, so long as that meant He took orders from them. But it’s doubtful, at that moment, that many of them wanted Jesus to go to a cross. After all, they would have reasoned, what good would Jesus’ dying do them?

Yet, Jesus’ reason for coming into the world had always been plain.

It had been clear to the wise men who came to visit the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. One of their gifts had been myrrh, a resin used to anoint the dead.

And Jesus sought to make His reason for entering the world clear to His disciples. He told them that He was going to Jerusalem to be rejected by the world, killed on a cross, and then raised from the dead. And when Peter tried to correct Jesus on this point, Jesus told him that Peter’s ideas were from Satan, not from God.

Jesus, although He was sinless, had come into our world to take the punishment for sin we all deserve. He came to die. He came to be the Lord of all because He loves all people and wants to bring forgiveness to all people. And He will become the King of any who dare to repent for their sin and believe in Him as their Lord.

That’s good news. But it also can be hard to accept because it entails things we don't like: surrender, obedience, submission. It also means accepting that, just like everybody else, we're sinners in need of a Savior.

A few days after Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, the crowds noticed that He hadn’t led an armed rebellion. He hadn’t taken over the government. He hadn’t done their bidding. Instead, He spent His time throwing moneychangers out of the temple, talking about prayer, arguing with the religious authorities, telling stories (or parables) about the kingdom of heaven, talking about love of God and neighbor as the greatest commandment, teaching of the need to be ready for Him to return after He’d died and risen, and, most strangely of all maybe, He prayed, sometimes for hours at a time. This wasn’t the king they'd been looking for. And so, by the Thursday after the first Palm Sunday, the crowd was crying for Jesus’ execution.

Jesus may not be the king we are looking for. But Jesus is the Savior we need. I’m convinced of that, first of all, because of the road Jesus took on Palm Sunday. It demonstrates that Jesus is committed to walking through the hardest places in this life with us.

As our Gospel lesson from Matthew begins, Jesus is walking on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. This is the same road, different direction, on which Jesus set His fictional parable of the Good Samaritan. It was a road on which people were often subjected to violence and robbery. Thugs hid in the rocks and crags of the road. Jesus walked that road. But, as you know, that wasn’t the hardest road Jesus traveled with us and for us.

The hardest road was Jesus’ entire life on this earth, when the Creator of the universe took the form of a servant, aiming all the while to die for us. That’s the point of some of Paul’s words in our second lesson today. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus,” Paul writes, saying that though Jesus was “in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”

“I don’t understand all of this,” a woman whose husband had left her once told me, “but I sure wouldn’t want to go through it without God.” A king like the one the crowd wanted--and that we may sometimes want: a king who skated above us, untouched by our failings and our difficulties, a king who gave us all we wanted without reshaping our characters into being more loving and more human, couldn’t help us when we’re confused or lost or lonely or grieving. But Jesus can! Like that woman, we learn that, in Jesus, the God of all creation can reach down into our everyday lives, even when we go through tough times. He can do that because every experience we may have as human beings, He has experienced. And every sin you and I have ever committed, He bore in His own body on the cross.

On Palm Sunday, Jesus also proved that He was the Savior we need by Who He chose to rely on. When I was in high school, I played hooky to see a President deliver a speech down at the State House. He was surrounded by a phalanx of Secret Service security, necessary to be sure. He also had Air Force One and his presidential limo and cars filled with assistants and the latest communication technology. Back on Air Force One, he had access to every comfort he could want. Wherever presidents go, they look like rulers of the world.

When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, He didn’t look like a ruler of the world. According to Matthew, Jesus rode a donkey, trailed by the colt of the donkey. In ancient times, the donkey was a symbol of humble domestic pursuits. Jesus had come into Jerusalem not with a sword, or a political program, or a retinue of public relations people, or a bevy of yes people. Jesus’ power didn’t and doesn’t depend on the dying stuff of this world. Jesus relied simply and completely on God the Father.

Every king, president, great athlete, and pop star, no matter how exalted dies. Even Elvis has left the building, folks! Only one king has ever defeated death. It was Jesus and there's only one reason for His victory over death. Even when He hung on the cross, the taunts of the fickle crowds ringing in His ear, the agonies of His wounds besetting Him, the horror of feeling abandoned by all haunting Him, Jesus depended only on God the Father. And here’s the point: Jesus’ resurrection is confirmation that surrender to God is the only path to new life.

Having committed Himself to walking through life’s hardest parts with us and having refused to depend on anything or anyone but the Father, Jesus rose from the dead. But more than that, Paul tells us in the second portion of our New Testament lesson from Philippians, “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Pastor Joanna Adams says that sometime before World War One, “Germany's last kaiser, Wilhelm II” visited Jerusalem. “His entourage,” she writes, “was so grand that he had to have the Jaffe Gate in the old city widened so that his over-sized carriage could pass through. After the parade had ended, someone climbed up and attached a large sign to the gate. The sign read, ‘A better man than Wilhelm came through this city's gate. He rode on a donkey.’"

On the first Palm Sunday, the most that the crowds would say about Jesus was that He was a prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. But those who paid heed to how He voluntarily walked our hardest roads with us and how He relied completely on God the Father, ignoring the acclaim of the crowd, could see that Jesus was much more than a prophet.

In one week, His resurrection would prove that His is the Name above every name.

When Jesus calls us to repent for sin, to put God higher than anything, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, He may not be the King we want. But when we remember His cross and empty tomb, we realize that, no matter what happens, Jesus is always the King we need.

He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the One Who reconciles us to God, the One Who erases the power of sin and death over our lives, the One Who makes us whole.

May our faith be more than words we say. By our dependence on Jesus, may it be seen too in the lives we lead. Amen