Easter 4 A: Audio Sermon (11-May-2014)

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Easter 4 A [John 10:1-10] (11-May-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker (8.30am, 10.30am).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sermon text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St John, who calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, from his Gospel 10:1-10, which we read earlier. And we read:

The sheep hear his voice,
and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, send to all of us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Do you have a favourite part of the church service that you look forward to every week? I have found over the years, that there are all kinds of parts of the service that I have “hooked on to”, if you like!

One part of the service which I have found has often been precious to a lot of people is where the pastor says before Holy Communion that we are singing with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven. There’s this mighty army that is fighting for us, that is rejoicing over one sinner who repents, this wonderful group that spend all day every day singing: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Here they all are in such heavenly joy, singing back and forth the purity, the holiness and joy of God’s presence!

And we say in church that we are joining in with them. The angels actually come and join in with our singing and we join in with them, just as the angels came and sang with the shepherds at Christmas time. Isn’t it a wonderful thing to be part of that choir, to be baptised into that band, to be part of the Holy Spirit’s own music group?

But you know, there’s also another army, which we could call the “demons, the arch-demons, and all the company of hell”. The devil also has an army, and it is the kind of army that is so much more powerful than any of us human beings. We can’t fight against them with our strength. But we have our own captain, our own army-general, Jesus Christ – all we have to do is call upon him and he comes and fights for us together with all his angels. And Jesus is so wonderful and loving that he fights for us even when we don’t ask.

It’s strange – there are hardly any references to demons in the Old Testament. (I think in total demons are mentioned 4 times). But as soon as Jesus goes about preaching in the synagogues, all of a sudden, demons are all over the place. In Mark’s gospel we read how as soon as Jesus went into a synagogue and started teaching, we read: Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

What an amazing thing that happened here! A few verses later we read: He went out throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. Jesus does these two things together – he preaches and he casts out demons. Not anybody’s preaching can cast out a demon; only Jesus’s pure, holy teaching can cast them out.

You see, Jesus is the light of the world, and when he steps into the synagogues, the darkness is revealed. It’s like someone who has a messy floor in their bedroom, and all of a sudden someone walks in, turns on the light, and everything is revealed: the clothes, the books, the socks, the shoes, the musical instruments—everything is revealed.

So when Jesus walks into a synagogue, he turns on the light, and all the demons are revealed.

Jesus says to us: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Jesus is actually with us, standing right in our midst, just as he was with his scared disciples on Easter Sunday night, just as he was with Thomas inviting him to look at his wounds, just as he was with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is making his own disciples in his own church: and when we baptise people and teach them, we can trust that Jesus is with us, baptising them with his own hands and his own mouth, and teaching us with his own voice.

This is such a wonderful mystery! Just think that Jesus is so concerned about us, that he visits us this morning to come and breathe out his Holy Spirit on each of us personally?

And when we are baptised, the first vow we take is this: Do you renounce the devil, and all his works and all his ways? In baptism, Jesus himself comes to speak his own word and cast out demons. And every time we come to hear the word of God, this is not mere people speaking to you, this is Jesus himself speaking to you. He is the one who preaches, who blesses, who comforts, and he is the one who casts out demons and who breathes out his Holy Spirit and says: Peace be with you.

In one of the Lutheran Church’s statements of faith, called the Smalcald Articles, which was written by Martin Luther, he says: Thank God, today a seven-year-old child knows what the Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd. For the children pray, “I believe in one holy Christian church.”

Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Isn’t it a blessed and wonderful thing to come together not to hear the voice a mere human being, but to come and hear the voice of Jesus himself?

+++

You know, being a pastor isn’t an easy job sometimes, because there’s a temptation for us to preach to you our own ideas. That’s not the reason why pastors are put here. We’re put here to speak to you only what your Good Shepherd speaks to you in his word. Only our Shepherd’s voice has the power to cast out the demons, and only his voice has the power to unite us with the angels, the archangels and all the company of heaven. So we pastors better make sure that we get this right.

In Acts 6, it says that the apostles devoted themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Prayer comes first, because without God’s help, there’s no way that we pastors can preach God’s word. That’s why we pastors need to ask people to pray for us.

Martin Luther wrote in the Small Catechism: God’s name is hallowed when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and we as the children of God also live holy lives according to it. Help us to do this heavenly Father! Did you hear that last bit? Help, help, help! Help us to do this heavenly Father! You know how much you need God’s help to live a holy life; pastors also need God’s help to teach his word in its truth and purity. Help us to do this heavenly Father!

So in our Gospel reading today, Jesus says: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

There are two voices that you can hear in church: you can hear the voice of your Good Shepherd, or you can hear the voice of a thief and a robber. Do you know that it’s your job, your duty, your privilege as laypeople to hold your pastor to account? No pastor should require anybody to do anything that he says, but if it’s the words of Jesus, then the sheep should listen to their Good Shepherd’s voice.

Sometimes people have said to me: Pastor, I don’t want to be annoying, and I’m not educated in theology, but I disagree with something you said. Well, as pastors, we need to listen to you, because St Paul says: To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Sure, you might think that you have a simple or a simplistic faith, and don’t know the bible as well as you think you should, but you too have been given the Holy Spirit. And maybe the Holy Spirit will use you one day to correct your pastor for the benefit of everyone. You sheep need to listen carefully to what your pastors say to you, not to do observe everything we command you, but to observe everything Jesus has commanded you, to listen to his words, to listen to his forgiveness, his gospel, his grace, his peace. Pastors don’t have the power to do anything unless we speak the words of Jesus.

So let’s listen to what Jesus says about false teachers. He says:

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. There is only one door, and that is the Scripture. In fact, Jesus says: I am the door. The door, the gate for the sheepfold is Jesus as he shows himself to us in his word. He says: A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. The Holy Spirit is true God and he will not call people to gather together around a thief. So you sheep need to judge your shepherds on whether or not they are speaking the voice of your Good Shepherd, because there is no other God except for our Lord Jesus Christ whose blood is able to save you. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

But listen to what Jesus says about himself:

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Yes, we hear the sweet Gospel from Jesus’ own lips, he calls us by name and applies the forgiveness of each and every single one of our sins to each one of us. He says: When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

What wonderful gifts Jesus gives to us as our Good Shepherd! He enters by the door, and he shows himself to us from the Scriptures. He allows us to recognise his voice! He sends us the Holy Spirit so that when we hear his word, we receive it and rejoice in it, just like the baby John the Baptist leaped for joy in his mother’s womb! He goes before them, he leads us and guide us and shows the way before us. He says: I am the way, the truth and the life. He lets us enter into eternal life completely through him. If we want to enter through ourselves and our own works, the door will always be shut. But he forgives, he leads us, he saves us through water and the Spirit, and he leads us to good pasture. And he gives us life, eternal life, and lets us enjoy it abundantly. This is not talking about life as in cars, money and success—he’s talking about the life that comes from his wounds, his resurrection, his Holy Spirit, which is the salvation of our souls, the peace and comfort of eternal life.

So let’s hear our Good Shepherd’s voice! And may he descend from his throne right into our midst and pour out his forgiveness upon all our human voices! May he himself preach, cast out the demons, breathe out the Holy Spirit, and may he send us his peace.

Amen.

Lord Jesus, our Good Shepherd, like seven year old children, we are so glad that we know what the church is, and we are glad to be here in your presence and to hear your holy, powerful and comforting voice! Amen.

Easter 3 Wednesday [Luke 24:13-35] (7-May-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker (11am).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sermon text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St Luke, from his Gospel 24:13-35, which we read earlier. And I’ll read a couple of verses:

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself… They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scripture?”

Prayer: Sanctify us with the truth, Lord. Your Word is truth. Amen. [Sit.]

 

In the Small Catechism, Luther writes: I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

Here in our Gospel reading today, we see a wonderful example where Jesus comes and calls two disciples and gives them the light of the Holy Spirit. Jesus examines their hearts, preaches to them the Gospel, and breaks the bread with them. And we read: Did not our hearts burn within us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?

But sometimes we can look at ourselves and say, “What about me? Why doesn’t my heart burn within me? Why do other people seem to be full of spiritual experiences and heart-warming events in their life, but not me? Why do new Christians in Africa and Asia seem to have their heart warmed by the word of God, but not us in Australia?”

Listen – the point of this passage is not the fact their “hearts were burning”, the point of this passage is not their experience, the point of this passage is what caused it, namely, the word of God. We read: Did not our hearts burn within us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?

Now there are all sorts of things in this life which might make us feel good, and warm our hearts. We often talk about warm-fuzzies: we go to one of the 75 cheap shops in Mt Barker and we see a calendar with pictures of puppies with little ribbons tied around their necks, and we think, “What a heart warmer!”

But that’s not what we’re talking about here in the reading. We’re not talking about something like that. We’re not even talking about when we sing a Christian song from our childhood that reminds us of those good times we had when we were younger, and makes us think about the good old days. We’re not talking about being sentimental.

In our Gospel reading today, we are talking about the fire of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus himself comes into our midst and opens to us the Scriptures, it always has an effect. But how did Jesus open the Scriptures to them? We read: Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

It’s not simply preaching anything and everything that brings about God’s enlightening power. It’s when Jesus preaches himself, his wounds, his cross, his suffering, his death, his sacrifice, his blood, his resurrection, his ascension, his sitting at the right hand of God the Father.

You see, there are two things in the bible, two messages, two different words. One is the law, where God teaches us what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. And the law shows us our sin, because it shows us what we haven’t done, what we have done that is not from God, and also it shows us what we realise we’re not going to be able to do. The law is God’s word to kill us. And this word also has an effect. On the day of Pentecost, Peter revealed to all the people there that they had crucified Jesus, the man who was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God the Father. And we read: They were cut to the heart, and asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

But in our Gospel reading, Jesus is not interpreting to these two disciples the things concerning themselves, and their own sin, and their own failures. He already did that when he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. The preaching of the law is done. Now, it’s time to preach the Gospel, to interpret to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

You see, right from the beginning of the bible, right from Moses and the prophets, they are prophesying and speaking to us even now just what a wonderful Saviour and Lord we have in Jesus. And this is the wonderful thing that Jesus himself wants to preach to them. Jesus points them to the Scripture, to the simple truth and purity of the word, and says to these disciples, “You see that? That’s talking about me!” One of the most amazing passages like this of course is Isaiah 53, and I would encourage you to go and read this chapter and see just how each verse so clearly preaches the suffering of Jesus to us, even though it was written over 500 years beforehand.

So when Jesus comes and preaches himself to us, he comforts us with the gospel, he kindles in our heart the light, the fire of the Holy Spirit. He sees the empty cup there in our hearts and he fills it. He sees the faintly burning wick, and he fuels it.

There’s also another way of reading the Scriptures, which doesn’t have this effect. And that is when we read the Scripture in such a way that we judge everything according to our human standard, our reason, and our intellect. We call this a critical approach to Scripture. This is when we put ourselves above the Scripture and when we find something that cuts our heart, instead of recognising it as the voice of the Holy Spirit calling us to repentance and to change our mind about something, we say, “Well, the bible can’t possibly mean that! What it really means is this?”

Of course, this approach to Scripture the devil also used when he said to Eve, “Did God really say…?”

So we say, “Come on, we can’t just blindly follow the bible like some kind of moron. We have to take into consideration modern sensitivities, we have to remember we live in the 21^st century now, we have to be practical!”

Who says? Since when has the bible ever taught us that?

You see, we don’t know how smart these two men were. We don’t know if they were simple farmers, city commuters, university academics, or shopkeepers. All we know is that Jesus opened to them the Scriptures like he would have to anyone and enlightened them with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We live in a time where people think they are so smart, that as soon we get an idea in our heads which gives us an excuse not to listen to God’s word, we put ourselves above the simple people, and we close our ears to them, not realising that to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

So what happens when we take on this critical approach to Scripture? What happens when we put our human reason above the simple, clear truth of the Scripture? We turn the church from a fountain of living water into waterless springs. People come to our churches looking for the bread of life, and the sign above the door says “sold out.” They come looking for wine of gladness, and the sign says, “Out to lunch”. Simply put: When in reading the bible we replace the Holy Spirit with our own human spirit, then the Holy Spirit simply doesn’t call, gather, enlighten or sanctify anyone around the Gospel, because the Gospel isn’t there.

Let me finish today by reading you a little quote from Martin Luther’s sermon on this passage today:

We should gladly read, hear, and receive the Holy Scripture, God’s Word. The Holy Spirit, whose power is with the Word, gives understanding as we see with these disciples. They are struggling here along the way to get into Scripture, but to no avail. Thereupon the Lord joins himself to them, preaches a wonderful sermon to them, taking passages from Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, and explains them, so that they understand the Scriptures. The same will be true for us. If we will approach Scripture with earnestness, we will find to our heart’s great joy that we perceive Christ rightly, how he bore our sins, and how we shall live everlastingly with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, if only we remain simple students and fools like these disciples… There’s no room, therefore, for a smart intellectual and disputer when it comes to this book, the Holy Scripture. God gave other disciplines—grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, philosophy, jurisprudence, medicine—in which we can be judicious, dispute, dig, and question as to what is right and what is not. But here with Holy Scripture, the Word of God, let disputing and questioning cease, and say, God has spoken; therefore, I believe.

Amen.

Lord Jesus, come to us today, and open to us the Scriptures, and kindle in our hearts the light of your Holy Spirit. Amen

Easter 3 A: Audio Sermon (4-May-2014)

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Easter 3 A [Luke 24:13-35] (4-May-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker (8.30am, 10.30am).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sermon text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St Luke, from his Gospel 24:13-35, which we read earlier. And I’ll read a couple of verses:

Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scripture?...Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, send to all of us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Our Gospel reading today is a favourite passage of many people, and it tells the events that took place on the afternoon of the first Easter Day. We have here a wonderful example of the words where Jesus says: Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Here in the Gospel reading, we have two disciples, who don’t even realise that Jesus is alive, but Jesus joins them, preaches to them and breaks bread together with them. And what a wonderful thing it is that Jesus should take the time to spend with these two disciples? He could have done so many other things, and broken bread with another 4 or 5000, like he did with the loaves and the fishes, but no—he wants to show to us that he comes to be with two or three. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

So we read: That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened.

Seven miles from Jerusalem is just over 11 kilometres, and is a bit like walking from Mt Barker to Hahndorf. It’s not that far, but it’s still a good solid walk.

And we read: While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognising him.

It’s such an astonishing thing that Jesus meets these two men in such a humble way. He doesn’t appear in a puff of smoke and surprise them. He doesn’t stop them in their tracks. He simply draws near to them and walks along with them, just like any other traveller who is looking for some people to share a journey with. And we read that their eyes were kept from recognising him. Now why do you think this is the case?

Sometimes it happens in our lives too that Jesus walks along with us for a while, but our eyes are completely blinded to his presence. Sometimes, if we find ourselves in difficult and hard times, we might say, “Jesus, where are you? What are you doing?”—only to realise later that he was there with us the whole time, protecting us, guiding us, leading us. So also, here in our Gospel reading, their eyes were kept from recognising him, not because God didn’t want them to recognise him, but so that they could recognise him later and when the time was just right to strengthen and build their faith in most amazing way possible.

Notice also, that Jesus simply draws near to them and goes along with them. He is so humble and gentle: he doesn’t push his way into the conversation, but simply comes alongside of them, just at the place where they are at, and then he walks with them.

And we read: And [Jesus] said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?”

This is amazing. Jesus knows everything that is going on. He knows very well what they’re talking about. Only within the last day, he has risen from the dead, and the only thing he wants to know is what these two men are talking about. And the same goes for us: Jesus has risen from the dead, he’s sitting at the right hand of God the Father, with all the authority of heaven and earth in his hand, and what’s the one thing that he wants to do? He draws alongside of us and he walks with us, and he wants to take an interest in every detail of our lives. He wants to take an interest in our conversations with family and friends, our little conversations that we have with ourselves, our consciences, our thinking, our ruminating, our philosophising. And he comes alongside of us, walks with us, and asks: What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? You think, this man has just risen from the dead, and that’s the best thing he’s got to say?

But here Jesus demonstrates for us something wonderful, and I think there is something really great here to learn about outreach and evangelism. We all know that there are a lot of people who have never heard about Jesus, and haven’t come to know him. And many of us want to reach out to people and share the faith with them.

Also, many of us feel guilty about not sharing our faith when we had the opportunity. Then, when we hear passages about “letting our light shine”, and such like, we are struck down even more. We think, “Jesus, what do want me to do? I want to share the faith, but I’m not very good at it, and I feel like I’m being sent out to fail at something that I’ve failed at a million times before.”

And yet, when we start to think like this, Jesus gently draws near to us and walks along with us and says, What is this conversation that you are having as you walk along? He takes an interest in us and he wants to know our thoughts, and all our frustrations. But then he shows us his example from this. He shows us that as we go on our way through life, we can spread the good news of the resurrection in a gentle way. We don’t need to be aggressive, but we can simply draw alongside people, walk with them, and then ask them a simple question: What are you talking about? What do you mean? Jesus talks in such a way that these two men are the most interesting people he knows. And when we show an interest in people, we testify to the fact that they have a God and a Saviour who is interested in them.

We read: They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?”

Look at this innocent conversation. Jesus has all the authority of heaven and earth in his little finger, and yet, he wields all of this authority with such simple words: What things? See how Jesus uses all his authority, all his power, all his strength in such a gentle way. So often we hear people say something vaguely religious which has all kinds of things mixed into it. People say: This is happening to me because of bad karma. We can say: Why do you think that? Or: Why do you believe in karma? Or people say: I’d never set foot in a church. We could say: Why not? They might say: Because it’s full of hypocrites. You could say: Why do you think that? Just see what happens. You see, here in our gospel reading, our loving Saviour, Jesus, shows his interest in these two men by asking them such simple questions. He doesn’t come along side of them because he wants to win them over to his side of an argument, he’s not trying to win friends and influence people, he’s not trying to gain power by rallying a little lobby group or a fan club around himself. Jesus doesn’t need to influence their spirits, because he already has authority over their spirits. And true authority doesn’t need to force itself.

Now what happens when Jesus gently pushes them with this question? We read: They said to him, “[Were talking about] Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

See how Jesus’ simple question brings about a complete and full confession of their heart. Jesus’ knows the human heart so well, that he knows that only a small button needs to be pressed, and out comes the whole conscience, out pours the heart, the soul, the spirit of a person.

We can see in this conversation some things that are right and some things that are wrong. This is always the case with everyone, even with pagans and atheists. Sometimes there are some things that they have understood correctly, even if they are minor things.

So now Jesus gets to work: he cuts to the chase. And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The more we read the Scriptures, the more we realise just how much we don’t know. I once knew a man who didn’t want to come to church, because he thought that he knew everything that there was to know. And it’s the people who have read the bible through from beginning to end 10 times who go back for the 11^th time because they know that there is so much that they don’t know. And so Jesus is right when he says to these disciples: O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. And then he goes through the Scriptures, from Moses, the prophets, and he points the disciples to himself. The whole Scriptures, from beginning to end, teach us about Christ. The Holy Spirit takes each word of Scripture, each verse, each chapter, and shows us Christ.

Now, in the second part of our reading, they come to the village, and they ask Jesus: Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. Think of that first Easter day, and all the wonderful things that happened on it. Wouldn’t you wish that that day would never end? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it would just continue like one long day, so that we could all enjoy it, and soak up some of the amazement of that day? And yet, in some sense, that’s exactly what happens. The sun is going down, the darkness is setting in, and the disciples look to the Light of the world and ask him: Stay with us. Easter day is finished, but we need you to stay with us, because without you, without your preaching, without your teaching, Jesus, we are just left with our sorrow, and we don’t want to have to go into the evening and into the night like that. We need you, Jesus, we need your presence. We need you to stay with us.

And so he does. He stays with them, and breaks bread with them. And in the New Testament, when it says: breaking bread, it often refers to the Lord’s Supper. I think it’s fair enough to assume that this is exactly what Jesus did for them: He gave them his body and his blood to eat and drink, just as he did with the 12 disciples only a few days earlier.

And then we read: And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him. And he vanished from their sight.

Do you recognise Jesus in the Lord’s Supper? Do you recognise his body and blood there, his body given for you, his blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins? Let Jesus open your eyes to let you recognise him, and recognise just what a precious and wonderful gift he is giving to you there.

Jesus knows just how much time he needs to spend with these disciples. And once he has preached the word of God to them and shared his supper with them, we read: He vanished from their sight.

There is another passage like this, in Acts 8, where Philip is on the road with an Ethiopian man and baptises him. We read: When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. I might have liked Philip to stay with me a bit longer, and teach me some more, but the Spirit of the Lord knew just how much time he needed. The same with Jesus: When everything was done, he vanished from their sight.

And the two disciples were not disappointed and sad again because he had vanished. In fact, night time turned around. All their tiredness and sleepiness was converted into energy. They said: Did not our hearts burn with us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. They rose that same hour: at night time, and returned to Jerusalem, 11kms away. That’s a long walk to begin at night time. And yet, St Luke writes about it like it was no effort for them at all. And we read: They told what happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

This gospel reading is so rich, and we could spend so many hours meditating on it. But each Sunday, we come to stand in the presence of this same Jesus, who has vanished from our sight. He draws alongside us, walks with us, preaches his word to us and breaks bread with us. That’s the two main parts of the church service: listening the word of God, and receiving the Lord’s Supper. Every Sunday is a kind of anniversary not just of the resurrection, but of this event where Jesus breaks bread with these two disciples.

So as we face our week ahead, our worries, our future, let’s hang on to this same Jesus, and pray to him: Stay with us, Lord Jesus. How we need your presence with us! If it weren’t for your presence and for your help, we would ruin everything. Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.

Amen.

Lord Jesus, draw near to us today and walk with us in our lives. Speak your words to us, and interpret to us everything in the Scriptures about yourself. Through your word, kindle in our hearts the fire of your Holy Spirit. Fan the flickering light of our weak faith into full flame. Open our eyes and teach us to recognise you in the breaking of the bread. Amen.

Easter 2 A: Audio Sermon (27-Apr-2014)

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Easter 2 A [John 20:19-31] (27-Apr-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker (8.30am, 10.30am).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sermon text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St John, who in our Gospel reading today, John 20:19-31, saw the wounds of the resurrected Jesus with his own eyes, together with the other 10 disciples, was sent by him and had the Holy Spirit breathed out upon him. And I’ll read a couple of verses:

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you… Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, send to all of us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

In the book of Daniel, chapter 9, there is a wonderful prayer that the prophet Daniel prays, asking for the forgiveness of sin for himself and the people.

Anyway, this is a very long prayer, and you can read it at home. But something that has always interested me is what happens after Daniel this prayer. We read: While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.”

What a wonderful message this angel Gabriel brings! And I must say that from an earthly, fleshly point of view, I’m a little bit jealous of Daniel. So many times, when I’ve looked back at a particular day, a particular week, or part of my life, and seen all my regrets, my mistakes, my bad judgments, all my sin – boy! – I would love to have the angel Gabriel come flying in through my bedroom window, and say to me just as he said to Daniel: At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Wouldn’t that be something? Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing to happen?

But this is not how it happens.  So often we end up feeling cold and lonely when we’ve confessed our sin to God, especially when it’s something that’s really troubling us, because we would so desperately love to hear God give us an answer, to assure us that he loves us, to speak to us the forgiveness of our sin.

And yet, after Jesus rises from the dead, he sets about to make sure that troubled sinners are comforted.

If we were alive before the crucifixion of Jesus, we could have gone to meet him and hear him say those wonderful words to us: Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace!

But we also know that Jesus is not accessible to us in that visible way anymore. Jesus says: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. Jesus is not going away, in the sense that he’s not here anymore. After all he says: I will be with you always to the end of the age. But he goes away when he ascends into heaven in such a way that he is no longer visible. He’s promises to be here with us, but we can’t see him.

But if Jesus going to be with us, is he going to keep his mouth shut? Is he going to be with us, but never speak to us again? Is he so unloving that once he has ascended into heaven, we will never hear anymore his wonderful voice, that wonderful, comforting voice of our Good Shepherd?

Let’s read what Jesus does:

On the evening of [Easter] day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

This is amazing. Here are the twelve disciples, (minus Judas and minus Thomas) all of whom had deserted him when he was arrested, and he comes and says to them: Peace be with you. After all of their shame, all their sin, all their guilt and confusion and fear, he comes to them, just like the angel Gabriel came to Daniel, and brings an answer to their prayers.

They say: God, what do you think of us failures? What are you going to with us? What are we going to do now? Jesus comes and says: Peace be with you.

Remember how at Christmas time, the angels sang: Peace on earth. Now Jesus comes after his resurrection and he says: Peace be with you. Let me now give you peace on earth.

And then, Jesus shows them where this peace comes from. We read: When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. The peace that passes all understanding is the peace that comes from Jesus’ wounds. Here are the disciples thinking what failures they were. And Jesus comes and says: Look. See my hands—everyone in the world thinks that these wounds are a sign that I was the greatest failure that ever lived. Everyone thinks now that these wounds are the very proof that I wasn’t really the Son of God after all. But now I’m showing them to you again in a new way, to prove that I am the same Good Shepherd who suffered and died for you. Yes, I know you failed, and you had to fail because I had to die alone. And now, I’m coming to share my victory with each of you, and to give you the perfect peace that only comes from me, the peace which passes all understanding, the peace which I pour out to you from my wounds.

But then Jesus does something so unexpected. He says to these disciples: As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

Just as the Father sent me into the world, so I am sending you also into the world. Just as the Father even sent me here today to speak my peace to you, and show you my wounds, so I am sending you to preach my peace to people and to preach my suffering and death for them.

And Jesus says to them: As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Well, think about those words. What is Jesus asking the apostles to do? In Matthew 11, we read where John sent a messenger to Jesus and asked: Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?

Jesus answered them: Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

If the Father sent Jesus to do these things, is Jesus sending out his apostles to do these kind of things too? Jesus says: As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you. Are all the apostles supposed to heal the blind, the lame, lepers, the deaf and raise the dead? Is this what all the pastors of the church are supposed to do?

Jesus explains exactly what he means—He says: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Jesus wants to say to them: I am going to give you a special ministry. It is a ministry that doesn’t belong to you, but it belongs to the Holy Spirit. You won’t be able to take any credit for what you do, but the Holy Spirit will work through you. And the job I am giving you to do, is to administer the forgiveness of people’s sins. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. This forgiveness is not your forgiveness, but this is God’s forgiveness. Jesus wants to put this forgiveness of sins not on the lips of an angel, as when Gabriel went to Daniel. That was a once-off. He wants to put his forgiveness in the mouth of these 11 disciples, and then throughout the history of the church, this ministry continues when this word is put on the lips of pastors.

It’s not enough simply to tell people that Jesus rose and that many people saw him and were sent to preach about him. We pastors are also called to forgive your sins on behalf of Christ, not because he is absent, but because he is present and wants to speak through the pastor. And pastors do this every Sunday.  Jesus said: If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven. So pastors say: On behalf of my Lord Jesus Christ and by his command, I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus also says: If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Once again, sometimes people are living in some kind of sin, and have absolutely no desire to repent of it, and don’t care what the bible says about them. If a pastor withholds forgiveness, it’s not because he personally withholds it, but because Jesus clearly shows in his word that he withholds forgiveness, just as he withheld it from the Pharisees and other people. And even though he may have withheld forgiveness, he still prays: Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.

Nobody would care to come to church on Sunday if Stephen van der Hoek, or some other pastor forgave you. But what if Jesus put a pastor in the church so that He himself could come and forgive you? Wouldn’t you just want to come all the time and receive this wonderful gift? You could even badger your pastor at other times to speak this word to you personally and privately – you’re very welcome.

This is what pastors do. We bring to you the forgiveness of sins. And when we do, we speak to you the peace of Jesus, the peace of Jesus’ holy and precious wounds. This is the peace of the Holy Spirit, the peace of Jesus’ own words. Pastors even heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, and raise the dead. Maybe we don’t this physically, but we get the job started, because when you hear the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, and receive the absolution, you can be sure that this word has the living power to heal you completely, physically, spiritually and bodily in the next life and at the resurrection of the dead, when you will see Jesus face to face with your own eyes, no blindness, no deafness, no lameness, no death. So yes, what Jesus says is true: As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you.

And the apostles had a special custom which is still continued today of laying their hands upon new pastors, to continue this ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s called “ordination”. But there’s a difference between the apostles and other pastors: The apostles tell people that they saw the resurrected Lord, and were sent directly by him. But as a pastor, my job is not to tell you that I personally saw the resurrected Lord, but to point you to the eyewitnesses of the apostles, and to show you that they saw him, and to preach to you what they said about him. And we know what they saw because some of them wrote it down, and what they wrote down is called “The New Testament”.

Jesus didn’t write anything down himself. Everything we know about him we know from the writings of the apostles, and we’ll just have to take their word for it. It’s the only thing we’ve got!

You might think that that’s a bit unsatisfying. Well, so did Thomas. He wasn’t there, and he said to his fellow disciples: Ha! I’m not going to take your word for it. Don’t you tell me about Jesus saying, “Peace be with you”. Don’t you tell me about the peace of Jesus’ wounds. I’m not listening to your “Peace, peace”, where there’s no peace. I want to see those wounds for myself! Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.

Well, Jesus satisfied Thomas, because he wanted him as one of these original apostles. So a week after Easter he came again and said, Peace be with you. Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Now listen to me, Thomas, says Jesus. Everyone in my church in the rest of history is going to want to be like you and see my wounds for themselves. But they’re not going to until their dead. In the meantime, they’re going to have to take your word for it! Everyone in the future who is going to be my disciple is going to be one who comes under this blessing: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

What a joy it is to take the apostles’ word for it! What a joy it is to be one of those who have not seen Jesus but believed.

Thomas is completely overjoyed! He says: My Lord and my God!

And just at the end of our Gospel reading, we have a little note from the apostle John. He was there on both these occasions, with and without Thomas, and he wants to let you know as one of his future readers, that yes, our eyewitness, our preaching, our ministry, our writing, is the only thing that you’ve got to go on. How he must have sensed the importance and the weight of his task and of his ministry!

 So he writes: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we rejoice and praise you for the things that are written in this book for our benefit, so that we can believe that you really are the Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and our God, and that by believing we may have life in your name. Strengthen us with your peace, the peace of your wounds, your forgiveness, your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Easter Sunday: Audio Sermon (20-Apr-2014)

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Easter Sunday [John 20:1-18] (20-Apr-2014)

Coming

Good Friday (18-Apr-2014)

Coming

Maundy Thursday: Audio Sermon (17-Apr-2014

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Maundy Thursday [1 Corinthians 11:23-25] (17-Apr-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker (7.30pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sermon text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St Paul, whom Jesus converted and called on the road to Damascus, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, which was our second reading tonight. And I’ll read a couple of verses:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, send to all of us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

At the end of the book of Genesis, we read about where the old man, Jacob, goes down to Egypt. He has been reunited with his long lost son, Joseph, who was sold by his brothers as a slave, and now became a prince in Egypt. But then comes to time for Jacob to die—and in Genesis 49, we read about how he gathers all his sons together, and blesses them one by one. And not long after this wonderful blessing, we read: When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

And as we come to celebrate Maundy Thursday tonight, we also see a similar thing – Jesus knows he’s about to die, and so just like Jacob gathering his twelve sons, he gathers his twelve disciples and he blesses them. But Jesus’ blessing is quite a different kind of blessing—Jacob gives all his sons individual blessings which are suitable to each one, but Jesus gives them the same blessing. Jesus blesses each of the disciples with the words: Take and eat, this is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. And instead of resting his hands on each of the disciples, like we might imagine Jacob doing with each of his sons, Jesus by means of simple bread puts his body in their mouths, and by means of simple wine puts his blood upon their lips. What a wonderful blessing Jesus gives them! This reminds me of those wonderful words of John, who often called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was actually there at the Last Supper: Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

We come to church to hear the words of Jesus, and each word he speaks to us is such a wonderful, loving word. And what Jesus says is not just talk, but it does things: Jesus loves us in deed and in truth. And at the Last Supper, he says: This is my body, and he actually gives the disciples his body to eat. He says: This is my blood, and he actually gives the disciples his blood to drink. It’s just like when Jesus, together with his Father and the Holy Spirit, said at the beginning of creation: Let there be light, and there was light. And just as we still have light in the world today because of those words, so also in the church, we still have Christ’s body and blood to eat and drink, because his words and still powerful. And so Jesus fulfils those words: Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Let us love. At the beginning of our Gospel reading tonight we read the words: Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of the world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Do you see how Maundy Thursday is a night that is stamped with love? Not just some lovey-dovey soppy love, like in some Hollywood movie. This is pure love, divine love, love which we can’t begin to comprehend, and we will never completely understand in our lifetime. But Jesus shows us this love, and demonstrates it to us in his words and actions. This is what Maundy Thursday is about. And so Jesus washes his disciples’ feet to show them what sort of a love he has for them.

Peter doesn’t fully understand. He says: You will never wash my feet. Jesus says: What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. We can never fully understand the depth and the power of the love which Jesus is showing to us at any given time. So often we look back on our lives and realise that Jesus was with us powerfully in times when we thought he might have given up on us. But what a wonderful love it is that Jesus shows us! We read in Romans: I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, not 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.

And so Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. And he says: For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Jesus is not giving his disciples a sacrament of foot-washing. We will have a foot-washing ceremony later in our service, but this is a re-enactment, not a sacrament. But through this foot-washing, Jesus wants to teach the disciples: I’m going to send you out into the world to bring the gospel to all nations. And you need to know that you are not to go out and get people to serve and wait on you, and to rub oil on your bunions, and pour you refreshments. You are to go and wait on those I have called out of the world, you are to serve them, to wash their feet just like a household slave. This is the kind of love that Jesus teaches the disciples on Maundy Thursday night.

And so he says to them: A new commandment I give to you that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Jesus says: I am going to be with you always until the end of the age. I’m going to walk with you, and work with you, and I’m going to breathe my Holy Spirit on you to comfort you. But that’s not to say that Jesus will work through us whatever we do. I read recently where someone said that Jesus does his mission in us and sends the Holy Spirit through us wherever we go and whatever we do. That’s not true – when we sin, when we hurt people, when we hate people, when we let our temper get the better of us, when we curse them instead of blessing them, no—Jesus is not working through us in whatever we do. It’s not in doing whatever we like that people will know that we are his disciples, but it’s by this [that] people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

And then we go to Jesus, and we say: Look, Jesus, I’m just not as loving as I know I should be. I’m always giving you a bad name. I get frustrated with people, and I don’t love them. I get to that crazy intersection of Gawler Street and Hutchinson Street, and some nincompoop turns right in front of me when he shouldn’t have, so I honk my horn and give him the finger. And to top it off I’ve got this fish sticker on the back of my car advertising that I’m a Christian. Well, so much for the line: By this all people will know that you are my disciples.

So, Jesus, what do I do? How do I learn this love? How do I get this love?

Jesus knows very well that you need this love, that you need to study it, that you need to receive it constantly from him.

In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther, in his Questions and Answers for those who intend to go to the Sacrament, writes this question:

Finally, why do you wish to go to the sacrament, [the Lord’s Supper]?

Answer: That I may learn to believe that Christ, out of great love, (did you hear that word?) died for my sin, and also learn from Him to love (there it is again!) God and my neighbour.

The Lord’s Supper is a Supper of Christian love. Even the apostle Jude, in his letter, the second last book in the bible, calls the Lord’s Supper, a love feast. A feast of love. (Actually, the love feast probably also included not just the Lord’s Supper but also a further meal together.)

But when St Paul writes to the Corinthians, the Lord’s Supper is not one of love at all. He says: When you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. He even says: When you come together it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not!

Those are very strong words from the apostle Paul. And we can see that even the early churches didn’t get everything right, as if this was some kind of golden era, where all these happy smiling Christians were all sitting around in a circle, holding hands and singing, Kumbaya.

No – they also, just like us, had to learn how to love.

And so St Paul says: Let me teach you how to love. I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

So Jesus loves his disciples by speaking his word. He says: This is my body, given for you. This is my blood of the new covenant, the new testament in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus through the power of his clear and pure word, makes the bread and wine something that it wasn’t before. Jesus had done this kind of miracle before, where he took a sick person, spoke his word, and made them well. So, it’s no ordinary bread and wine anymore: it’s the body and blood of Christ. It’s still bread and it’s still wine—but the bread is united to the body of Christ and the wine to this blood. This is what we call the consecration. So that if someone were to ask us: what is that food on the table there? We would say: It’s the body and blood of Christ. And Jesus doesn’t tell lies. Every word of God proves true. St Paul says: The blessing cup that we bless, is it not a participation of the blood of Christ?

But it’s not enough for Jesus simply to consecrate his body and blood. He loves his disciples by giving his body and blood to them. We read in Mark: After blessing it, he broke it and gave it to them. He broke the bread so that they could all have a piece. This is what we call the distribution. Even in the New Testament, the Lord’s Supper is called the breaking of the bread. This means, not that Jesus broke it as some great symbolic ritual, but he broke it so that they could have some.

But it’s not enough for Jesus simply to give it to them to do whatever they like with it. He doesn’t want them to put his body in their pockets and take it home. Jesus loves his disciples by telling them to eat it and drink it. This is what we call the reception of the Lord’s Supper. He wants to put his body in their mouths, and he wants to put his blood on their lips.

And all of this, Jesus says: Do this in remembrance of me. Remembrance doesn’t mean that it’s not his body, and that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial meal of bread and wine without his body. Otherwise, Jesus didn’t mean what he said, when he said: This is my body. No – the Lord’s Supper is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. He says: I want you to eat my body and drink my blood in remembrance of me. That’s what I want you to do, when I say: do this.

What wonderful love Jesus shows to us! Not only does he die on the cross, and rise again from the dead, but he stays with his church and feeds his own church himself, with himself, with his body and blood, all throughout Christian history!

So this Supper that we are going to share together, is the supper where Jesus teaches us his great divine love. It is here, on our knees, around the altar of God, where Jesus shapes and forms us in his character, in his mind, in his heart and works in us that pure love, the love which he shows completely undeserved to us. It’s especially here in the Lord’s Supper where these words are taught and begin to come true and take shape: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. All this he does by giving us such a precious gift: His body and his blood.

May God bless you with his Holy Spirit as we come to receive this gift tonight, and to be comforted and strengthened with his precious words!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we can’t begin to imagine how you bring about this great miracle in the Lord’s Supper. But we trust in your words in all their truth and purity: This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for your for the forgiveness of sins. Amen, amen, it shall be so!