+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Mark 3:27
Theme: Master of Satan
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Christ, our Lord, tells us that the gates of hell will not prevail against His kingdom1. The assumptions that lie behind His words are not to be taken lightly. Christ offers this reassurance in the face of the formidable power of evil. Satan is a serious foe. Sin and death are brutal enemies. They don’t entertain the idea of negotiation and they take no prisoners. Christ has come to us as the resurrection and the life2 and victor over sin, death, and Satan. What are we to make, then, of today’s accusation that Jesus was in league with Satan?
To ears that have been thoroughly accustomed to hearing reverent things spoken about the name of Christ, these demonizing claims may seem audacious. Beelzebul refers to Baal-zebul3, meaning ‘Baal is prince.’ Baal was the name of one of the most prominent idols in ancient Canaanite religion. Baal was called upon for a wide range of fortune-telling and occult activities and was regularly sacrificed to. The history of Baal worship was long and is well-documented. The Jews are here accusing Jesus of being possessed by the spirit of idolatry and working in alliance with Satan Himself.
But if Jesus is casting out demons and freeing people from bondage to his ways how can He be in allegiance with Satan? The devil would then be undermining his own efforts. Such a suggestion does not follow sound logic. In reality, Christ is in the process of dismantling Satan’s scheme of domination. Jesus describes Himself as the stronger man who has now breached the devil’s security and is plundering his house. He then proceeds to label this claim as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Christ works by the Spirit of God and to demonize Him is to equate the spiritual works and goals of Satan with those of the Messiah. This is a grievous sin. Jesus calls it an eternal sin which is not forgiven.4
It’s been said that if you are worried about committing the unforgivable sin, then you haven’t actually committed it; because if you had you would have no interest in the question. The deceitful nature of the human heart should cause us to pause before attempting to simplify the matter too much. We always like a guise for our desire to go on sinning. These words of Christ are forthright and the context shows no evidence of exaggeration. When the Holy Spirit and His means are continually, steadfastly, and willfully rejected the opportunity for the forgiveness of sins is obstructed. We have absolutely no assurance that the Holy Spirit will circumvent His appointed means. If baptism is rejected, Holy Communion is despised, and the hearing of God’s word abandoned, faith has no avenues to be sustained and the soul is in grave danger.
Undoubtedly that’s why Jesus singles it out as being so ominous. It’s notable that at this point in Jesus’ life His own family thought He was out of His mind.5 They came to take Him home, presumably to protect Him and their own reputations. Jesus essentially ignores them emphasizing the doing of God’s will. The world will always have an agenda. Its agenda will always be driven by the desire for self-promotion and self-indulgence. It entails the quest for power, money, popularity, prosperity and security.
Pursuit of the agenda involves practices of dishonesty and inequality. The agenda is based on human measures of value. The principles which allow this agenda to be pursued may in some measure agree with God’s will. A certain order and stability is needed in society to allow safe pursuit of goals. Both God and the secular government want a level of peace and order in society. But the unbelieving world will only promote the acquisition of things that are self-serving. The church always maintains a critique of the world’s agenda in some measure. Otherwise, we would be in denial that we live in a sinful world.
When the church capitulates fully to the agenda of the society at large, then it ceases not only to offer constructive criticism, but fails to transform people by catechizing them in the truth of Holy Scripture. Eternal salvation is ultimately at stake. The church must be steadfast in its proclamation of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ regardless of its popularity or results. The Word of God transforms without the aid of human embellishment or the deterrent of human corruption. The church’s call is to integrity and diligence. Because the world’s agenda is relentless and continues to push until checked by God’s judgment, we can, as Christians, have no misgivings about our task. Those segments of Christianity which condone or promote unbiblical agendas such as those of evolution, homosexuality, abortion and other things contrary to the word of God, have forsaken their mission to be salt and light in the world. They cannot in the same breath claim to serve the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In human terms, we may be very lonely, yes, even harassed and mocked when taking our stand on the truth. We may feel increasingly isolated from the ideals and pursuits of society. It’s a reality we had better get used to. Trends are pointing to an intensifying intolerance of the convictions of the Christian faith. The perception that Christianity- despite particular convictions distasteful to the post-modern mind- is generally a positive influence on society is no longer widely held.
But we have the assurance with which Paul speaks of, “Am I trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”6 Only God’s opinion ultimately matters. And as Christian fathers and mothers, bosses and employees, grandchildren and retires, as trusted friends, we have a great accountability regarding the integrity of our faith. Our Christian faith is never a purely private affair. We may influence countless people by never uttering a word. The Bible says, “You are the salt of the earth.”7 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”8
The Christian, who speaks and lives the truth, speaks with the greatest authority and has an incalculable influence. This is so because the Christian speaks and lives with the authority of Christ. We should always stand in awe of and never underestimate that power. Precisely because we understand that power is not our own, it gives rise not to arrogance but humility within us. Those who have been granted the greatest authority are in need of exercising the greatest humility. In proportion to one’s power and influence must be the diligence to avoid abusing that power. A leader is not a greater sinner than the common person when he or she falls- only likely to affect many more people. A Christian is a frail vessel carrying a great authority. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
We may sense a growing coldness from the world. But the apostle reminds us of the holy companionship we have. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.”9 The world always has an alluring call. But we know the Master’s voice. “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.”10Jesus Christ has plundered Satan’s house. His death and resurrection have robbed the devil of His power. He has been bound by the cross. He has been put on notice. He knows his time is short. The same death and resurrection are the power by which you live. You are His baptized. You are His chosen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Second Sunday After Pentecost
7 June, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 See Matthew 16:18 2 See John 11:25
3 See 2 Kings 1:2 4 See Mark 3:29
5 See Mark 3:21 6 Galatians 1:10
7 Matthew 5:13 8Matthew 5:14
91 John 1:3 10John 10:27-28
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
Day of Pentecost (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 16:15
Theme: Distributing the Inheritance
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God speaks. He is a God who communicates. He communicates through word and deed, with clarity and with power. The writer of Hebrews begins his letter saying, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, who He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.”1 Today, on Pentecost, the truth of God’s communication to us also takes centre stage. Pentecost is one of the high festivals of the church year. On this day the church celebrates the promise of the Son to send the Spirit from the Father.
The end goal of the Holy Spirit is always the same. The Holy Spirit always seeks to lead the unbeliever to Christ. And the Holy Spirit always seeks to lead the believer back to Christ again, and again for forgiveness and sanctification. Jesus gives us some insight to the Holy Spirit’s work in today’s gospel. He uses the law like a surgical tool. “He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the price of this world now stands condemned.”2
Christ says the Holy Spirit will convict the word in regard to sin, because of their unbelief. Repentance and conversion are miracles of the Holy Spirit. Every degree of unrepentance is always a manifestation of unbelief, a rejection of the grace of God, a repudiation of Jesus’ work. The Holy Spirit offers no comfort for those who are content in their sinning or defiant in their unrighteousness. Such persons despise the forgiveness offered by Christ and shun His sacrificial work on the cross. When hardened in a state of unbelief, a human being is powerless to trust in Christ. For this reason, we declare with Luther, “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.”3
This is a remarkable statement because it confesses our complete ineptitude in spiritual things. It casts us wholly on the mercy of Christ; it makes us completely vulnerable to His promise. And that’s exactly where we need to be, because what feels risky to us (complete reliance on God) is actually the safest situation we can be in. The disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. Not until they were empowered by Him could they begin their witness to the world. Not surprisingly, that witness began with the miraculous ability to communicate the gospel in many languages.
Through human agency, Christ leavens the fallen world with His great reversal and restoration. The Biblical history of redemption is replete with facets of this reversal. The living Christ is the reversal of the Old Adam of death. Christ’s reign of righteousness is a reversal of Satan’s reign of evil, as He says, “The prince of this world now stands condemned.”4 The fallen era of the old covenant finds reversal in the new covenant marked by the Spirit. The pillar of the gospel’s singular confession dwarfs the Tower of Babel’s streams of confusion. Pentecost is a reversal of Babel. God gathers in forgiveness, what, in judgment, He was forced to scatter. From the plain of Shinar, an idolatrous humanity was scattered over the face of the earth. From the city of Jerusalem, a new community was gathered from an idolatrous world. At Babel, one language was divided into many tongues to confuse the message among many people and separate them. On Pentecost, the one message was spoken in many tongues to unite and gather many people. All Christians are agents of this reversal.
Our agency and our witnessing is not a matter of orchestrating something inconsistent with our baptismal life, but living faithfully in the promise of forgiveness. The Scripture says, “The fruit of Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”5 To keep in step with the Spirit means to live by the realities of the cross. The Holy Spirit will not lead us through the struggles of life by taking us through detours or enticing us to find strength or rest or answers from man-made sources; the Holy Spirit always takes us straight to the cross. He reminds us of the Saviour who died there for our sins and gives us strength and life and salvation.
The Holy Spirit distributes the blessings of the Father and the inheritance of the Son. Jesus says, “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”5 Think how great the endowment is that you have from God! Your dark, dirty, stained, and corrupted soul is cleansed, covered, renewed, and restored. You are clothed with a baptismal robe. You are fed with sacred food. You are tenderly embraced in divine love. You are protected with such spiritual armor that Satan cannot penetrate it. On the surface of it your life may appear pretty mundane, but you are in many respects an undercover agent bearing witness to the truths of the Spirit and the grace of the Son in both the small gestures of kindness and large sacrifices of time and resource you make.
God speaks. But His words are never idle or impotent. His words are life. The same Spirit who participated in the original creation will facilitate the new and final one. We’ll let Ezekiel have the final say, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put My Spirit in you and you will live.”7Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Day of Pentecost
24 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Hebrews 1:1-2
2 John 16:8-11
3 Explanation to the Third Article
4 John 16:11
5 Galatians 5:22-25
6 John 16:14-16
7 Ezekiel 37:12-14
Text: John 16:15
Theme: Distributing the Inheritance
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
God speaks. He is a God who communicates. He communicates through word and deed, with clarity and with power. The writer of Hebrews begins his letter saying, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, who He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.”1 Today, on Pentecost, the truth of God’s communication to us also takes centre stage. Pentecost is one of the high festivals of the church year. On this day the church celebrates the promise of the Son to send the Spirit from the Father.
The end goal of the Holy Spirit is always the same. The Holy Spirit always seeks to lead the unbeliever to Christ. And the Holy Spirit always seeks to lead the believer back to Christ again, and again for forgiveness and sanctification. Jesus gives us some insight to the Holy Spirit’s work in today’s gospel. He uses the law like a surgical tool. “He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the price of this world now stands condemned.”2
Christ says the Holy Spirit will convict the word in regard to sin, because of their unbelief. Repentance and conversion are miracles of the Holy Spirit. Every degree of unrepentance is always a manifestation of unbelief, a rejection of the grace of God, a repudiation of Jesus’ work. The Holy Spirit offers no comfort for those who are content in their sinning or defiant in their unrighteousness. Such persons despise the forgiveness offered by Christ and shun His sacrificial work on the cross. When hardened in a state of unbelief, a human being is powerless to trust in Christ. For this reason, we declare with Luther, “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.”3
This is a remarkable statement because it confesses our complete ineptitude in spiritual things. It casts us wholly on the mercy of Christ; it makes us completely vulnerable to His promise. And that’s exactly where we need to be, because what feels risky to us (complete reliance on God) is actually the safest situation we can be in. The disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. Not until they were empowered by Him could they begin their witness to the world. Not surprisingly, that witness began with the miraculous ability to communicate the gospel in many languages.
Through human agency, Christ leavens the fallen world with His great reversal and restoration. The Biblical history of redemption is replete with facets of this reversal. The living Christ is the reversal of the Old Adam of death. Christ’s reign of righteousness is a reversal of Satan’s reign of evil, as He says, “The prince of this world now stands condemned.”4 The fallen era of the old covenant finds reversal in the new covenant marked by the Spirit. The pillar of the gospel’s singular confession dwarfs the Tower of Babel’s streams of confusion. Pentecost is a reversal of Babel. God gathers in forgiveness, what, in judgment, He was forced to scatter. From the plain of Shinar, an idolatrous humanity was scattered over the face of the earth. From the city of Jerusalem, a new community was gathered from an idolatrous world. At Babel, one language was divided into many tongues to confuse the message among many people and separate them. On Pentecost, the one message was spoken in many tongues to unite and gather many people. All Christians are agents of this reversal.
Our agency and our witnessing is not a matter of orchestrating something inconsistent with our baptismal life, but living faithfully in the promise of forgiveness. The Scripture says, “The fruit of Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”5 To keep in step with the Spirit means to live by the realities of the cross. The Holy Spirit will not lead us through the struggles of life by taking us through detours or enticing us to find strength or rest or answers from man-made sources; the Holy Spirit always takes us straight to the cross. He reminds us of the Saviour who died there for our sins and gives us strength and life and salvation.
The Holy Spirit distributes the blessings of the Father and the inheritance of the Son. Jesus says, “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”5 Think how great the endowment is that you have from God! Your dark, dirty, stained, and corrupted soul is cleansed, covered, renewed, and restored. You are clothed with a baptismal robe. You are fed with sacred food. You are tenderly embraced in divine love. You are protected with such spiritual armor that Satan cannot penetrate it. On the surface of it your life may appear pretty mundane, but you are in many respects an undercover agent bearing witness to the truths of the Spirit and the grace of the Son in both the small gestures of kindness and large sacrifices of time and resource you make.
God speaks. But His words are never idle or impotent. His words are life. The same Spirit who participated in the original creation will facilitate the new and final one. We’ll let Ezekiel have the final say, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put My Spirit in you and you will live.”7Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Day of Pentecost
24 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Hebrews 1:1-2
2 John 16:8-11
3 Explanation to the Third Article
4 John 16:11
5 Galatians 5:22-25
6 John 16:14-16
7 Ezekiel 37:12-14
Ella Neumann Funeral (19 May 2015)
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 11:25-26
Theme: Resurrected Life
Dear family, friends and loved ones of Ella Neumann,
God has answered Ella’s prayer. It was her firm desire to make a swift exit from this mortal life. That request was granted. Her sudden death leaves those who knew and loved her in shock but we cannot begrudge her the reward she now enjoys. Her toils have ended. Her struggles are over. The crown of life is hers. She fully participates in Christ’s triumphant victory. She is home.
The reality that Christ has achieved for her is the focus of our reflection. The fact of Ella’s baptism some 86 years ago is not an insignificant historical detail. Time is immaterial to the effectiveness of God’s work. In her baptism Ella was embraced in the Father’s love and promised an inheritance in the kingdom. That inheritance she now enjoys. She looked forward; longing to be released from the limitations of her declining life.
A number of years ago I greeted Ella warmly after church and asked how she was. I took notice of her response because I had never heard it before. She said, “I’ll pass with a push!” ‘Pass with a push’ is apparently a colloquial expression that means you’re getting by but a little assistance would be mighty helpful. The phrase became an ongoing source of friendly jibing between the two of us. It’s also descriptive of the reality we often face. Sometimes we need more than just a little help along the way, especially as we stand at the threshold of heaven.
Ella witnessed many changes during her lifetime, but the most fundamental things do not change. Life is still precarious. Sin must still be resolved. Following the two world wars of the last century those who thought the collective goodness of humanity would prevail on society became disillusioned. The conviction that the human race could progress to a level of morality, altruism, and civility that protected the well-being and freedom of all was shattered by the horrors of human destruction on a mass scale. Nothing has happened in recent times to convince us that things will change anytime soon. The Holy Scriptures tell us they never will. Advances in technology, medicine, or social affluence should never be confused with fundamental progress in human nature. People today are not born more honourable, noble, or upright, they are only born into different circumstances with different opportunities.
Individually though, the conviction that people are basically good by nature is still widely held. It is the driving force behind every effort to find oneness, wholeness, heath or healing by looking within. Every attempt to put oneself right with God by accessing inner goodness is a spiritually fatal endeavor. Christ says, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”1 Death and decay were not part of the original equation. They are the result of sin. Sin is an all-permeating reality from which no one is exempt. There is no moral or spiritual hygiene that prevents us from coming into contact with it. All are held to account. All are guilty. All are in need of grace.
Ella understood the consequences of being a sinner. She knew she was saved by grace, through faith in her Saviour. She confessed that truth and she lived it. Her confirmation verse was “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”2 She knew the cross had reconciled her to God. She was happy to be associated with His ‘foolishness’.
Ella’s middle- Marie- is a derivation of one of the most famous names in history. Mary was the mother of our Lord and a different Mary, a close friend of Jesus, is relevant to our gospel today. Mary was the one who sat at Jesus’ feet and listened attentively to His words. Ella was a keen disciple of God’s word but she also saw to the education of the young in the faith. She had no children of her own but she was a faithful teacher for many children of the church. She regularly taught Saturday School and then Sunday School. She was active in handing on the faith to the next generation. Ella was never pretentious. What you saw is what you got. She called a spade a spade. She wasted little time with cover-ups or appearances. She was never short on humour and was long on integrity. She knew what it meant to work hard and get by with little. But she knew that salvation depended on Christ and that He would not fail her.
A woman in charge of the laundry services for a large company was the last one on staff after everyone else had left for a month’s break. She loaded all the uniforms into industrial washers, set them going, left, and never returned. The clothes were thoroughly cleaned, but because they were never dried or removed, when they were discovered a month later, they were moldy and ruined. They couldn’t be worn. A surgeon in a remote village was performing a protracted operation on patient in critical condition. While pausing to sanitize his hands the surgeon had a sudden stroke. Before another doctor arrived the patient died because the surgery was still incomplete. Both were tragic in their own way.
Dear friends, the sacrificial death of Christ for us was not the same sort of tragedy. Christ does not begin anything He does not finish. He does not launder our souls in His blood and then forget to clothe us with His immortality. He does not remove our sin with surgical precision and then fail to sew us up and heal us. God’s word says “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”3 His crucifixion atoned for our sins. His resurrection attains for us everlasting life. His Spirit attends us always.
Let us be clear about what the Scriptures say and rejoice in them. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins...but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.””4 He says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”5 He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”6
Ella’s soul resides in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, saints and angels. She awaits the resurrection of the body as we all do. As the beautiful hymn says Ella has fallen asleep in Jesus’ wounds. She has opened her eyes to the glorious brightness of eternity. The cares and the dangers of this mortal life no longer concern her. Sin cannot reach her. Satan cannot scare her. Death cannot touch her. She is with her Shepherd, her Saviour; her King. She need not worry if she’ll pass with a push for she enjoys vitality, the measure of which we can only envisage in faith. But, like Ella, we will not be disappointed when we see Him face to face. Thanks be to God for His immeasurable love. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Christian Burial of Ella Marie Neumann
19 May 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Matthew 15:19
2 1 Corinthians 1:18
3 Philippians 1:6
4 1 Corinthians 15:17, 20
5 John 5:24
6 John 11:25
Text: John 11:25-26
Theme: Resurrected Life
Dear family, friends and loved ones of Ella Neumann,
God has answered Ella’s prayer. It was her firm desire to make a swift exit from this mortal life. That request was granted. Her sudden death leaves those who knew and loved her in shock but we cannot begrudge her the reward she now enjoys. Her toils have ended. Her struggles are over. The crown of life is hers. She fully participates in Christ’s triumphant victory. She is home.
The reality that Christ has achieved for her is the focus of our reflection. The fact of Ella’s baptism some 86 years ago is not an insignificant historical detail. Time is immaterial to the effectiveness of God’s work. In her baptism Ella was embraced in the Father’s love and promised an inheritance in the kingdom. That inheritance she now enjoys. She looked forward; longing to be released from the limitations of her declining life.
A number of years ago I greeted Ella warmly after church and asked how she was. I took notice of her response because I had never heard it before. She said, “I’ll pass with a push!” ‘Pass with a push’ is apparently a colloquial expression that means you’re getting by but a little assistance would be mighty helpful. The phrase became an ongoing source of friendly jibing between the two of us. It’s also descriptive of the reality we often face. Sometimes we need more than just a little help along the way, especially as we stand at the threshold of heaven.
Ella witnessed many changes during her lifetime, but the most fundamental things do not change. Life is still precarious. Sin must still be resolved. Following the two world wars of the last century those who thought the collective goodness of humanity would prevail on society became disillusioned. The conviction that the human race could progress to a level of morality, altruism, and civility that protected the well-being and freedom of all was shattered by the horrors of human destruction on a mass scale. Nothing has happened in recent times to convince us that things will change anytime soon. The Holy Scriptures tell us they never will. Advances in technology, medicine, or social affluence should never be confused with fundamental progress in human nature. People today are not born more honourable, noble, or upright, they are only born into different circumstances with different opportunities.
Individually though, the conviction that people are basically good by nature is still widely held. It is the driving force behind every effort to find oneness, wholeness, heath or healing by looking within. Every attempt to put oneself right with God by accessing inner goodness is a spiritually fatal endeavor. Christ says, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”1 Death and decay were not part of the original equation. They are the result of sin. Sin is an all-permeating reality from which no one is exempt. There is no moral or spiritual hygiene that prevents us from coming into contact with it. All are held to account. All are guilty. All are in need of grace.
Ella understood the consequences of being a sinner. She knew she was saved by grace, through faith in her Saviour. She confessed that truth and she lived it. Her confirmation verse was “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”2 She knew the cross had reconciled her to God. She was happy to be associated with His ‘foolishness’.
Ella’s middle- Marie- is a derivation of one of the most famous names in history. Mary was the mother of our Lord and a different Mary, a close friend of Jesus, is relevant to our gospel today. Mary was the one who sat at Jesus’ feet and listened attentively to His words. Ella was a keen disciple of God’s word but she also saw to the education of the young in the faith. She had no children of her own but she was a faithful teacher for many children of the church. She regularly taught Saturday School and then Sunday School. She was active in handing on the faith to the next generation. Ella was never pretentious. What you saw is what you got. She called a spade a spade. She wasted little time with cover-ups or appearances. She was never short on humour and was long on integrity. She knew what it meant to work hard and get by with little. But she knew that salvation depended on Christ and that He would not fail her.
A woman in charge of the laundry services for a large company was the last one on staff after everyone else had left for a month’s break. She loaded all the uniforms into industrial washers, set them going, left, and never returned. The clothes were thoroughly cleaned, but because they were never dried or removed, when they were discovered a month later, they were moldy and ruined. They couldn’t be worn. A surgeon in a remote village was performing a protracted operation on patient in critical condition. While pausing to sanitize his hands the surgeon had a sudden stroke. Before another doctor arrived the patient died because the surgery was still incomplete. Both were tragic in their own way.
Dear friends, the sacrificial death of Christ for us was not the same sort of tragedy. Christ does not begin anything He does not finish. He does not launder our souls in His blood and then forget to clothe us with His immortality. He does not remove our sin with surgical precision and then fail to sew us up and heal us. God’s word says “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”3 His crucifixion atoned for our sins. His resurrection attains for us everlasting life. His Spirit attends us always.
Let us be clear about what the Scriptures say and rejoice in them. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins...but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.””4 He says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”5 He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”6
Ella’s soul resides in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, saints and angels. She awaits the resurrection of the body as we all do. As the beautiful hymn says Ella has fallen asleep in Jesus’ wounds. She has opened her eyes to the glorious brightness of eternity. The cares and the dangers of this mortal life no longer concern her. Sin cannot reach her. Satan cannot scare her. Death cannot touch her. She is with her Shepherd, her Saviour; her King. She need not worry if she’ll pass with a push for she enjoys vitality, the measure of which we can only envisage in faith. But, like Ella, we will not be disappointed when we see Him face to face. Thanks be to God for His immeasurable love. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Christian Burial of Ella Marie Neumann
19 May 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Matthew 15:19
2 1 Corinthians 1:18
3 Philippians 1:6
4 1 Corinthians 15:17, 20
5 John 5:24
6 John 11:25
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Seventh Sunday of Easter (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 17:11
Theme: Holy Intercession
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Christ understands the distresses of this mortal life. He has lived through them. The Scripture says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin.”1 It’s not surprising then that He continues to mediate for us. Today’s gospel is a beautiful illustration. This intense and richly worded prayer is often called the High Priestly prayer. It gives insight into Jesus’ work of intercession on our behalf. He never tires, He never rests, He never lapses, He never stops until we are resurrected with Him in heaven.
But we are not there yet. In the incarnation of Jesus time and space are redeemed, but time and space are also transcended and marked for collapse. Christ’s birth into the world means that time is no longer just ticking away endlessly and aimlessly without purpose. It means that this dimension of space in which we dwell has been reclaimed by its Creator. Everything is moving towards consummation in Christ. Denial, resistance, or ignorance will not spare the unbeliever from the judgment. But the repentant soul who takes refuge in the mercy of Christ never needs to doubt His forgiveness. John summarizes succinctly today, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”2
Jesus does not pray today that the disciples are immediately taken to heaven with Him. Rather, He prays fervently for protection from the evil one. Satan’s attacks are more sinister than we often acknowledge. Often we engage him childishly or naively, discounting both his intent and his influence. One of the most persistent symptoms of sin is overconfidence in our spiritual abilities and a false sense of security about our worthiness in God’s eyes. The world teaches that all people are basically good; they’re only in need of some prompting. The Holy Scripture says we are naturally full of utter darkness; worthy of condemnation. Both propositions cannot be true. They stand in contradiction. The crucifixion shows which conviction is true.
Dear friends, it’s remarkable that Jesus prayed these words just before His suffering and death. He was single-minded about the task before Him: Loving the world until the end. It alerts us to remember our priorities. You do not have the strength, the time, or the energy to pursue all the things you are most passionate about, let alone the things you have less interest in. How do you prioritize? Do you give precedence to those things which are financially lucrative? Do you put family first? Do you chase happiness? Are you driven by guilt? Do you find yourself being pulled in many directions at once without clear conviction about what is most important? No one can do everything. What motivates us to value the things we invest most in? What motivates us to love? What do we risk?
C. S. Lewis says, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin or your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers...of love is hell.”
Perhaps your prayer life has fallen on hard times? The busyness of your schedule or the apathy in your heart has pushed it aside. Perhaps it’s bogged down with formality or frail from superficiality? Maybe the devil has almost convinced you that it’s a waste of time; it just doesn’t work, your prayers don’t seem to be answered. Nagging, threats, or condemnations may convict you, and in-so-far-as they facilitate true repentance they are necessary. But the law gives no strength to accomplish what it demands, even in the case of prayer. The power rests with God alone. You are freed to pray because by grace Christ has set you free.
The unbeliever prays to an idol or prays aimlessly for that’s all he or she can do. But the baptized people of God lift their hearts and their voices to the Father of light, through the Son crowned with thorns, in the presence of the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit prays for you. Christ intercedes for you. As surely as the dead are raised; as surely as Christ has been resurrected from death, your prayer life too is raised, renewed, and recreated from the doldrums, from the darkness, from the ashes. For prayer is nothing more than one response of faith and faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Faith can move mountains because it draws on Him whose mighty power set the earth on its foundation. How often our prayers are not too assertive, but too paltry! Nothing is impossible with God. Christ Himself requests of the Father that we be sanctified in the truth. He says, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name.”3 What more can we ask for than the Son as our Mediator, Redeemer, and Judge; the Spirit as our Advocate, Comforter, and Counselor; the Father Himself as our Rock, Refuge, and Fortress? The angels, too, are not remiss in their attentiveness.
Thursday marked the Festival of the Ascension; forty days since Easter. In the ascension Christ passes with His humanity into the majestic presence of God. We are to think of this presence not only in terms of light and beauty and holiness, but also in terms of power, rule, and intercession. Christ lifts sinner to the right hand of God. The right hand of God is not a distant and dreamy place; it is right here where Christ breaches time and space through His means of grace. The Scripture says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim).”4
The Christ who dwells at God’s right hand is not different from the One who promises “I am with you always.”5 It’s not as though Jesus is gone and we must get by with the Spirit until He returns. The Holy Spirit is not Christ’s vicar. His role is not substitutionary. The Spirit points to Christ and attests to Him. The Holy Spirit discloses the mind of Christ. Christ seeks the glory of the Father. The Spirit seeks the glory of the Son.
Where does the penitent go; the soul aching for pardon? To the risen and ascended Christ in the sacrament. The lonely widow or widower? Where do they meet the Immanuel, God-with-us? In the sacrament. Where does the person bruised in conscience and battered in heart go to meet the Suffering Servant who still bears His scars in the flesh? In the sacrament. Where does the person who desires to leave regret behind “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead?” 6 To Him “who is and who was and who is to come,”7 in the sacrament. Christ is among us as One who serves. Our prayers are carried by Him. Our salvation is secured by Him. Thanks be to God! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Seventh Sunday of Easter
17 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Hebrews 4:15
2 1 John 5:11-12
3 John 17:11
4 Romans 10:6-8
5 Matthew 28:20
6 Philippians 3:13
7 Revelation 1:8
Text: John 17:11
Theme: Holy Intercession
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Christ understands the distresses of this mortal life. He has lived through them. The Scripture says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin.”1 It’s not surprising then that He continues to mediate for us. Today’s gospel is a beautiful illustration. This intense and richly worded prayer is often called the High Priestly prayer. It gives insight into Jesus’ work of intercession on our behalf. He never tires, He never rests, He never lapses, He never stops until we are resurrected with Him in heaven.
But we are not there yet. In the incarnation of Jesus time and space are redeemed, but time and space are also transcended and marked for collapse. Christ’s birth into the world means that time is no longer just ticking away endlessly and aimlessly without purpose. It means that this dimension of space in which we dwell has been reclaimed by its Creator. Everything is moving towards consummation in Christ. Denial, resistance, or ignorance will not spare the unbeliever from the judgment. But the repentant soul who takes refuge in the mercy of Christ never needs to doubt His forgiveness. John summarizes succinctly today, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”2
Jesus does not pray today that the disciples are immediately taken to heaven with Him. Rather, He prays fervently for protection from the evil one. Satan’s attacks are more sinister than we often acknowledge. Often we engage him childishly or naively, discounting both his intent and his influence. One of the most persistent symptoms of sin is overconfidence in our spiritual abilities and a false sense of security about our worthiness in God’s eyes. The world teaches that all people are basically good; they’re only in need of some prompting. The Holy Scripture says we are naturally full of utter darkness; worthy of condemnation. Both propositions cannot be true. They stand in contradiction. The crucifixion shows which conviction is true.
Dear friends, it’s remarkable that Jesus prayed these words just before His suffering and death. He was single-minded about the task before Him: Loving the world until the end. It alerts us to remember our priorities. You do not have the strength, the time, or the energy to pursue all the things you are most passionate about, let alone the things you have less interest in. How do you prioritize? Do you give precedence to those things which are financially lucrative? Do you put family first? Do you chase happiness? Are you driven by guilt? Do you find yourself being pulled in many directions at once without clear conviction about what is most important? No one can do everything. What motivates us to value the things we invest most in? What motivates us to love? What do we risk?
C. S. Lewis says, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin or your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers...of love is hell.”
Perhaps your prayer life has fallen on hard times? The busyness of your schedule or the apathy in your heart has pushed it aside. Perhaps it’s bogged down with formality or frail from superficiality? Maybe the devil has almost convinced you that it’s a waste of time; it just doesn’t work, your prayers don’t seem to be answered. Nagging, threats, or condemnations may convict you, and in-so-far-as they facilitate true repentance they are necessary. But the law gives no strength to accomplish what it demands, even in the case of prayer. The power rests with God alone. You are freed to pray because by grace Christ has set you free.
The unbeliever prays to an idol or prays aimlessly for that’s all he or she can do. But the baptized people of God lift their hearts and their voices to the Father of light, through the Son crowned with thorns, in the presence of the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit prays for you. Christ intercedes for you. As surely as the dead are raised; as surely as Christ has been resurrected from death, your prayer life too is raised, renewed, and recreated from the doldrums, from the darkness, from the ashes. For prayer is nothing more than one response of faith and faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Faith can move mountains because it draws on Him whose mighty power set the earth on its foundation. How often our prayers are not too assertive, but too paltry! Nothing is impossible with God. Christ Himself requests of the Father that we be sanctified in the truth. He says, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name.”3 What more can we ask for than the Son as our Mediator, Redeemer, and Judge; the Spirit as our Advocate, Comforter, and Counselor; the Father Himself as our Rock, Refuge, and Fortress? The angels, too, are not remiss in their attentiveness.
Thursday marked the Festival of the Ascension; forty days since Easter. In the ascension Christ passes with His humanity into the majestic presence of God. We are to think of this presence not only in terms of light and beauty and holiness, but also in terms of power, rule, and intercession. Christ lifts sinner to the right hand of God. The right hand of God is not a distant and dreamy place; it is right here where Christ breaches time and space through His means of grace. The Scripture says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim).”4
The Christ who dwells at God’s right hand is not different from the One who promises “I am with you always.”5 It’s not as though Jesus is gone and we must get by with the Spirit until He returns. The Holy Spirit is not Christ’s vicar. His role is not substitutionary. The Spirit points to Christ and attests to Him. The Holy Spirit discloses the mind of Christ. Christ seeks the glory of the Father. The Spirit seeks the glory of the Son.
Where does the penitent go; the soul aching for pardon? To the risen and ascended Christ in the sacrament. The lonely widow or widower? Where do they meet the Immanuel, God-with-us? In the sacrament. Where does the person bruised in conscience and battered in heart go to meet the Suffering Servant who still bears His scars in the flesh? In the sacrament. Where does the person who desires to leave regret behind “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead?” 6 To Him “who is and who was and who is to come,”7 in the sacrament. Christ is among us as One who serves. Our prayers are carried by Him. Our salvation is secured by Him. Thanks be to God! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Seventh Sunday of Easter
17 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Hebrews 4:15
2 1 John 5:11-12
3 John 17:11
4 Romans 10:6-8
5 Matthew 28:20
6 Philippians 3:13
7 Revelation 1:8
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Sixth Sunday of Easter (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 15:13
Theme: No Greater Love
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The love of God can never be exhausted. The grace of Christ is limitless. It transcends all human measures of capacity and of definition. It is always more, never less, than we can conceive of and comprehend. The Scripture says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”1 All true examples of human love are reflections of this divine original. In 17th century England a soldier was sentenced to be executed for his crimes. The execution was scheduled to take place when the tower bell rang out the time of the curfew. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier's fiancé had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking. When she was summoned to account for her actions, she wept as she showed the official her bruised and bleeding hands. His heart was touched and he said, "Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. The curfew bell shall not ring tonight!"
Who is He, this God who has sacrificed everything for our eternal well-being? Who is He who has prevented the death toll for us? The event of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the event which reveals God most clearly and as He wishes to be known. Christ became nothing, so that we might have everything. He took all of the punishment for our sins, so that we might have none of God’s condemnation. The Scripture says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”2
It is a necessary love, a love God’s law tells us we cannot live without. It is imperative that we understand the consequences of living in our fallen condition. When the condemnation of God’s holy law stings us, what is really the crux of the matter? What is it that deep down we fight tooth and nail to preserve? What is it that we do not want to give up? The answer in one sense is as simple as looking at the First Commandment. But in another sense it is as complex as the deepest desires of the heart, mind and will. The answer is that we always want to be on the throne. We always want to be in control. We always want to be served. We always want to come first.
The crux of the matter is idolatry and we make ourselves the objects of worship. People seek to achieve and maintain this self-idolatry in many different ways. Some use emotional blackmail and guilt on their spouse or family, others manipulate their friends, others justify their complete self-centeredness by simply calling it success. Regardless, the crux of the matter is sin and we have no power to escape its consequences. Obeying God is not a matter of close enough is good enough. It is all or nothing. The Scripture says, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”3
But to be transformed by His love makes us new people who are no longer willfully involved in contention against God. We have left the grand struggle of humanity. We are now part of the great yearning for eternity. There is no sin so great that the sacrifice of Christ has not atoned for it. The miracle of God’s grace is that no one is exempt from the transforming power of this love. Dear Friends, your life is a living sermon. Even if you do not plan to, you are bringing a message to the world in which you live. What are people taught by the living witness you give? Are you conscious of the words that fill your conversations with believers and unbelievers alike? Do you know that people who respect you are likely to imitate your actions? Therefore the Scripture says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us.”4
Motherhood is frequently referenced as an example of sacrificial love. It is a tangible and easily grasped illustration. The depth of a mother’s love for a child is often known only to God. Parents are God’s representatives to their children and God commands that they be honoured accordingly. But the command is not meant to be burdensome. To honour parents is to honour God Himself. The love of God is not abstract, it comes to us through people; it involves actions –toil, sacrifice, and persistence.
But it is always motivated by truth. As God’s ambassadors of love we can only have the strength to carry on because the Spirit continually builds us up in Christ. Let His words be your steady diet. Relish in the fulfillment of His claims. Find your identity in His baptismal promise. Satisfy your hunger for forgiveness with His body and blood. In a world that lives in abject dependency on human strength and idolatrous hope even to the point of despair; be a clear and confident witness to the freedom that comes from complete dependency on Christ. The truth of Christ becomes real and tangible to others as we live it every day. The evidence is in how we spend our money, how we manage our time, how we articulate our words. Our witness is shown in the priorities which we follow. In these things we are becoming in practice, what Christ made us in fact. For He has in fact, by grace, made us His redeemed and forgiven children.
Dear friends, the teaching of Jesus Christ, His suffering and humiliation, His death by crucifixion, His glorious resurrection, His ascension to the Father’s right hand, His sending of the Holy Spirit, His provision through baptismal water and sacramental blood, His promise of forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation; these provide nourishment by which we live. The diet of the world is sugar at best and poison at worst, though it tastes sweet to our carnal tongues. It deceives us into thinking we are satisfied through self-indulgence. But like blood poisoning to the body, it brings death to the soul. But as Christians, we live by the purified blood of another. The Scripture says, “When Christ came...He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”5 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ…cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.”6 And again, “This is the one who came by water and blood- Jesus Christ.”7
If in this life, we are privy to witness and experience such marvelous examples of the love of God in Christ, imagine what is in store for us in the life to come! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Sixth Sunday of Easter
10 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 John 4:10
2 1John 3:16
3 James 2:10
4 Ephesians 5:1
5 Hebrews 9:11-12
6 Hebrews 9:14
7 1 John 5:6
Text: John 15:13
Theme: No Greater Love
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The love of God can never be exhausted. The grace of Christ is limitless. It transcends all human measures of capacity and of definition. It is always more, never less, than we can conceive of and comprehend. The Scripture says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”1 All true examples of human love are reflections of this divine original. In 17th century England a soldier was sentenced to be executed for his crimes. The execution was scheduled to take place when the tower bell rang out the time of the curfew. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier's fiancé had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking. When she was summoned to account for her actions, she wept as she showed the official her bruised and bleeding hands. His heart was touched and he said, "Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. The curfew bell shall not ring tonight!"
Who is He, this God who has sacrificed everything for our eternal well-being? Who is He who has prevented the death toll for us? The event of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the event which reveals God most clearly and as He wishes to be known. Christ became nothing, so that we might have everything. He took all of the punishment for our sins, so that we might have none of God’s condemnation. The Scripture says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”2
It is a necessary love, a love God’s law tells us we cannot live without. It is imperative that we understand the consequences of living in our fallen condition. When the condemnation of God’s holy law stings us, what is really the crux of the matter? What is it that deep down we fight tooth and nail to preserve? What is it that we do not want to give up? The answer in one sense is as simple as looking at the First Commandment. But in another sense it is as complex as the deepest desires of the heart, mind and will. The answer is that we always want to be on the throne. We always want to be in control. We always want to be served. We always want to come first.
The crux of the matter is idolatry and we make ourselves the objects of worship. People seek to achieve and maintain this self-idolatry in many different ways. Some use emotional blackmail and guilt on their spouse or family, others manipulate their friends, others justify their complete self-centeredness by simply calling it success. Regardless, the crux of the matter is sin and we have no power to escape its consequences. Obeying God is not a matter of close enough is good enough. It is all or nothing. The Scripture says, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”3
But to be transformed by His love makes us new people who are no longer willfully involved in contention against God. We have left the grand struggle of humanity. We are now part of the great yearning for eternity. There is no sin so great that the sacrifice of Christ has not atoned for it. The miracle of God’s grace is that no one is exempt from the transforming power of this love. Dear Friends, your life is a living sermon. Even if you do not plan to, you are bringing a message to the world in which you live. What are people taught by the living witness you give? Are you conscious of the words that fill your conversations with believers and unbelievers alike? Do you know that people who respect you are likely to imitate your actions? Therefore the Scripture says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us.”4
Motherhood is frequently referenced as an example of sacrificial love. It is a tangible and easily grasped illustration. The depth of a mother’s love for a child is often known only to God. Parents are God’s representatives to their children and God commands that they be honoured accordingly. But the command is not meant to be burdensome. To honour parents is to honour God Himself. The love of God is not abstract, it comes to us through people; it involves actions –toil, sacrifice, and persistence.
But it is always motivated by truth. As God’s ambassadors of love we can only have the strength to carry on because the Spirit continually builds us up in Christ. Let His words be your steady diet. Relish in the fulfillment of His claims. Find your identity in His baptismal promise. Satisfy your hunger for forgiveness with His body and blood. In a world that lives in abject dependency on human strength and idolatrous hope even to the point of despair; be a clear and confident witness to the freedom that comes from complete dependency on Christ. The truth of Christ becomes real and tangible to others as we live it every day. The evidence is in how we spend our money, how we manage our time, how we articulate our words. Our witness is shown in the priorities which we follow. In these things we are becoming in practice, what Christ made us in fact. For He has in fact, by grace, made us His redeemed and forgiven children.
Dear friends, the teaching of Jesus Christ, His suffering and humiliation, His death by crucifixion, His glorious resurrection, His ascension to the Father’s right hand, His sending of the Holy Spirit, His provision through baptismal water and sacramental blood, His promise of forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation; these provide nourishment by which we live. The diet of the world is sugar at best and poison at worst, though it tastes sweet to our carnal tongues. It deceives us into thinking we are satisfied through self-indulgence. But like blood poisoning to the body, it brings death to the soul. But as Christians, we live by the purified blood of another. The Scripture says, “When Christ came...He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”5 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ…cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.”6 And again, “This is the one who came by water and blood- Jesus Christ.”7
If in this life, we are privy to witness and experience such marvelous examples of the love of God in Christ, imagine what is in store for us in the life to come! Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Sixth Sunday of Easter
10 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 John 4:10
2 1John 3:16
3 James 2:10
4 Ephesians 5:1
5 Hebrews 9:11-12
6 Hebrews 9:14
7 1 John 5:6
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Fifth Sunday of Easter (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 15:2
Theme: Always Bearing Fruit
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Vital truth can never be relative. Many things have shades, degrees, and layers of truth but the most fundamental realities are absolute. “God is love” and “God is life” are among them. How long will you wait for the branch severed from the tree to spring to life? Life is not self-existing or self-sustaining. And to say that is fundamentally a statement of belief. Observation would seem to suggest otherwise. The biologist or the philosopher may contend that Mother Nature has cleverly and marvelously worked out how to keep life rolling along. Life seems to propagate itself and adapt as necessary to its environment. But what lies behind this power? God Himself!
To attribute the complexity and resilience of life to a random, mindless force is, in fact, an act of faith too. It’s a big leap of faith, at that. Of course, this has nothing to do with biblical faith and is actually unbelief. To believe that life is just a collection of physical components functioning without any other purpose than to propagate the next generation is to abandon all hope in immortality and drain life of its deepest meaning and purpose.
Today Jesus calls Himself the true vine. It was a readily accessible comparison for those familiar with agriculture. “I am the vine; you are the branches, if a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”1 But what He says about Himself isn’t intended to be simplistic. In other words, there is more than just a convenient analogy going on here. Christ is the origin of life. Apart from the sustaining power of God all life would collapse in an instant. Apart from the life-giving Spirit who connects us to Christ all would remain in spiritual death. Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.”2 “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”3
The promise of eternal life stands in stark contrast to the alternative. “If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”4 There is little doubt about the message here. It is a stern warning about the consequences of rejecting Christ and His work. It leads inevitably to death and judgment, temporal and eternal. The fruitless branches are lopped off and eventually burned in the fire. Sin isn’t simply moral infringement on God’s will; unforgiven and unresolved it eventually severs one permanently from the life of God. Such knowledge sobers our repentance.
Notice, too, that the branches which are bearing fruit are pruned. Believers, too, are in need of God’s chastisement. Repentance is not a once-off activity. We can be, and indeed, are completely justified in God’s sight by grace, through faith in Christ and at the very same time we are “overgrown”, shooting off in our own directions like an untrained vine. Grace covers us, but our unrighteous tendencies still need to be curbed. Just as pruning a plant makes it more vigorous, our being purified makes our faith more robust. Bearing the cross and living as God’s baptized necessitates this continual dynamic.
The bearing of fruit for the kingdom is always the effect of being grafted to the vine and never the cause. And fruit, good deeds done for the neighbour, are never leverage against God. God’s favour cannot be bought. The very moment you get the idea in your head that because of your devotion, because of your loyalty, because of your effort to support the church, you deserve to be spared from the hardships that will test your faith; at that very moment you have made God indebted to you. You have placed God in obligation to you for your services. And that, dear friends, is a completely fabricated circumstances that does not exist and can never exist. There is no bargaining with God. This is no scope for bartering, haggling, or negotiating even under the façade of piety. To believe otherwise is to grossly misunderstand the gospel.
What does the Scripture say? “Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or does the saw boast against him who uses it?”5 “Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’”6 The prophet Daniel has it right when he says, “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.”7 Rather than being exempted from trial, we can expect not only to experience the difficulties common to humanity, but also persecution because of the word. In this way we are truly witnesses. We can only reflect God’s love through the parameters He has set. These are often rejected by the world.
But Christ tells us He has overcome the world. His death and resurrection supersede all other powers. His love conquers all evil. God is love; but not in a generic way. God is not merely the concept of love; an idealized theoretical virtue. God is incarnated love. He is love in flesh and blood with veins and arteries. He was conceived in the Virgin’s womb yet born into the darkness of the world. He came to dwell among sinners. His love is a condescending love; a love that stoops down in mercy.
Today’s illustration of a living vine connects well with the nature of faith. Faith is not an inanimate gift like a material possession. It lives and breathes the truth, the words, and the love of Christ. Like our bodies it must be fed or it atrophies and dies. Plants have xylem and phloem tubes. People and animals have arteries and veins. Souls have God’s word and sacraments. All are conduits of life. Xylem and phloem transport water and nutrients. Arteries and veins transport blood. God’s means of grace transport forgiveness. Baptism incorporates us into the life to the triune God. Absolution assures us we are reconciled to the heavenly Father. Holy Communion contains the substance of life. Through these means we remain connected to the Vine and receive His life.
Jesus says today, “You are already clean.”8 Why are we clean? Because of the word Christ speaks to us. Because of the word with which the Spirit washes us. Because of the word with which the Father cajoles us. We are cleansed through the water-drenched word of baptism. We are purified through the blood-empowered word of the cross. We are made new by the creative word of the Unbegotten. God’s words are truth and they are life. It is no coincidence that St. John’s description of heaven makes reference to the tree of life. “Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”9 Christ is our tree of life. He is our true Vine. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fifth Sunday of Easter
3 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 15:5
2 John 5:25-26
3 John 11:25-26
4 John 15:6
5 Isaiah 10:15
6 Isaiah 45:9
7 Daniel 9:18
8John 15:3
9Revelation 22:2
Text: John 15:2
Theme: Always Bearing Fruit
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Vital truth can never be relative. Many things have shades, degrees, and layers of truth but the most fundamental realities are absolute. “God is love” and “God is life” are among them. How long will you wait for the branch severed from the tree to spring to life? Life is not self-existing or self-sustaining. And to say that is fundamentally a statement of belief. Observation would seem to suggest otherwise. The biologist or the philosopher may contend that Mother Nature has cleverly and marvelously worked out how to keep life rolling along. Life seems to propagate itself and adapt as necessary to its environment. But what lies behind this power? God Himself!
To attribute the complexity and resilience of life to a random, mindless force is, in fact, an act of faith too. It’s a big leap of faith, at that. Of course, this has nothing to do with biblical faith and is actually unbelief. To believe that life is just a collection of physical components functioning without any other purpose than to propagate the next generation is to abandon all hope in immortality and drain life of its deepest meaning and purpose.
Today Jesus calls Himself the true vine. It was a readily accessible comparison for those familiar with agriculture. “I am the vine; you are the branches, if a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”1 But what He says about Himself isn’t intended to be simplistic. In other words, there is more than just a convenient analogy going on here. Christ is the origin of life. Apart from the sustaining power of God all life would collapse in an instant. Apart from the life-giving Spirit who connects us to Christ all would remain in spiritual death. Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.”2 “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”3
The promise of eternal life stands in stark contrast to the alternative. “If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”4 There is little doubt about the message here. It is a stern warning about the consequences of rejecting Christ and His work. It leads inevitably to death and judgment, temporal and eternal. The fruitless branches are lopped off and eventually burned in the fire. Sin isn’t simply moral infringement on God’s will; unforgiven and unresolved it eventually severs one permanently from the life of God. Such knowledge sobers our repentance.
Notice, too, that the branches which are bearing fruit are pruned. Believers, too, are in need of God’s chastisement. Repentance is not a once-off activity. We can be, and indeed, are completely justified in God’s sight by grace, through faith in Christ and at the very same time we are “overgrown”, shooting off in our own directions like an untrained vine. Grace covers us, but our unrighteous tendencies still need to be curbed. Just as pruning a plant makes it more vigorous, our being purified makes our faith more robust. Bearing the cross and living as God’s baptized necessitates this continual dynamic.
The bearing of fruit for the kingdom is always the effect of being grafted to the vine and never the cause. And fruit, good deeds done for the neighbour, are never leverage against God. God’s favour cannot be bought. The very moment you get the idea in your head that because of your devotion, because of your loyalty, because of your effort to support the church, you deserve to be spared from the hardships that will test your faith; at that very moment you have made God indebted to you. You have placed God in obligation to you for your services. And that, dear friends, is a completely fabricated circumstances that does not exist and can never exist. There is no bargaining with God. This is no scope for bartering, haggling, or negotiating even under the façade of piety. To believe otherwise is to grossly misunderstand the gospel.
What does the Scripture say? “Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or does the saw boast against him who uses it?”5 “Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’”6 The prophet Daniel has it right when he says, “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.”7 Rather than being exempted from trial, we can expect not only to experience the difficulties common to humanity, but also persecution because of the word. In this way we are truly witnesses. We can only reflect God’s love through the parameters He has set. These are often rejected by the world.
But Christ tells us He has overcome the world. His death and resurrection supersede all other powers. His love conquers all evil. God is love; but not in a generic way. God is not merely the concept of love; an idealized theoretical virtue. God is incarnated love. He is love in flesh and blood with veins and arteries. He was conceived in the Virgin’s womb yet born into the darkness of the world. He came to dwell among sinners. His love is a condescending love; a love that stoops down in mercy.
Today’s illustration of a living vine connects well with the nature of faith. Faith is not an inanimate gift like a material possession. It lives and breathes the truth, the words, and the love of Christ. Like our bodies it must be fed or it atrophies and dies. Plants have xylem and phloem tubes. People and animals have arteries and veins. Souls have God’s word and sacraments. All are conduits of life. Xylem and phloem transport water and nutrients. Arteries and veins transport blood. God’s means of grace transport forgiveness. Baptism incorporates us into the life to the triune God. Absolution assures us we are reconciled to the heavenly Father. Holy Communion contains the substance of life. Through these means we remain connected to the Vine and receive His life.
Jesus says today, “You are already clean.”8 Why are we clean? Because of the word Christ speaks to us. Because of the word with which the Spirit washes us. Because of the word with which the Father cajoles us. We are cleansed through the water-drenched word of baptism. We are purified through the blood-empowered word of the cross. We are made new by the creative word of the Unbegotten. God’s words are truth and they are life. It is no coincidence that St. John’s description of heaven makes reference to the tree of life. “Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”9 Christ is our tree of life. He is our true Vine. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fifth Sunday of Easter
3 May, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 15:5
2 John 5:25-26
3 John 11:25-26
4 John 15:6
5 Isaiah 10:15
6 Isaiah 45:9
7 Daniel 9:18
8John 15:3
9Revelation 22:2
Monday, April 27, 2015
Fourth Sunday of Easter (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 10:11
Theme: The Necessity of the Shepherd
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The valley of the shadow of death will give way to the light of immortal existence with the triune God, angels, and all the saints. The final goal, the beatific vision of God, the marriage banquet of the Lamb, is nothing short of astonishing- inconceivable in our current fallen condition. Yet, that is precisely the promise and the future for the baptized people of God. The One who knows has said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”1 He says, “I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”2 Thanks be to God for His immeasurable love to us in Christ.
There is but one good Shepherd. God alone is good for only He is sinless; only He is immortal and eternal. Many things are good in life and goodness is a fruit of the Spirit along with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control3 Yet all the goodness that we observe, and invest in, and cultivate in ourselves and others is but a dim reflection of the divine. Christ alone is truly good because only He was selfless without fault. His desire was never for the glory of self but for the glory of the Father and the well-being of the sinner. That may be a mantra which elicits little more than an approving yawn from the faithful (perhaps because they think they have heard it too many times) but it remains the core of Christian truth.
The contrast between the selflessness of Christ and the inborn selfishness of the sinner will always be a point of departure for proclaiming the truth of Christ to an unbelieving world.
In the current climate of our culture the desire of self is something to be indulged, not curbed. We live in a culture that believes in entitlement. The stimulus towards egotism is pervasive. I am entitled to be happy nearly all of the time. I am entitled to have a stress-free, well-paying job. I am entitled to receive more government benefits and pay lower taxes. I am entitled to pursue my personal interests at the expense of others. I am entitled to have the nicest clothes, the nicest car; the nicest house. I am entitled to be me. And I am entitled to believe that others should mostly concur with and support my pursuits.
When the veneer of civility is removed the seedier side of the indulgence of self is revealed for what it really is: first rate idolatry. The consequences are serious and such idolatry is expressed in many ways that clash intensely with the values of society. Homosexuality, abortion and sexual promiscuity transgress God’s will precisely in this way: they are forms of self-indulgence, pursuits of idolatry, unchecked and even fostered as desirable.
The corruption of our nature runs deep, down to the core. Luther describes this corruption of sin as being curved in on oneself. Here is an interesting sociological example. According to a study by Dutch psychologists, restaurant servers who copy their customers’ behavior get double the tips of servers who don’t. In an American style restaurant in the south of Holland, the researchers told half of the servers to repeat their customers’ orders, while the other half were instructed to say something positive, such as, “Coming right up!” The copycat servers average tip was double that of the servers who just said something nice. In commenting on the experiment one researcher said good salespeople know the value of copying the customer. “A good salesperson knows from experience that people like to hear and see themselves.” How readily our actions show that we believe we are entitled to curve in upon ourselves.
But the Spirit lifts the believer to higher and holier things. He tunes us in to the voice of the Shepherd. It is a voice we can only know from His word. Therefore confidence in the Scriptures is crucial for the faith and life of the believer. The early church father, St. Augustine once said, “Faith will falter if the authority of holy scripture is shaken; and if faith falters, love itself decays. For if someone lapses in faith, he inevitably lapses in his loves as well, since he cannot love what he does not believe to be true.”
You cannot love what you do not believe to be true. Yes, you can show a strong affinity, perhaps hedging your bets, keeping your options open. You can pursue the outward performance of deeds which encompass the tangibles of showing love. Through such actions you can seek to acquire praise or avoid chastisement. But true love is a motivation of the Spirit from the heart. Dear friends, we love because we believe. We believe to love is to honour God. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”4
This is not a time-bound message limited in scope or application. Christianity is not just a mitigating force in a world of ungodliness and unbelief. Christianity is not just a moral platform upon which to base the ethics of individuals and societies. Christianity is not just a medium for personal religious devotion. Christianity is not primarily about therapeutic remedies, moral convictions, social improvement, or individual empowerment. All of these things are involved, but belief in Christ is more profound still. The gospel is about the all-encompassing work of the triune God through the person of the Son. The doom of eternal hell has been turned aside. The devastations of Satan are laid to rest. The consequences of all evil, wickedness and unrighteousness are made null and void. Life is pulled from jaws of death. The crucified One has risen and He lives and reigns to all eternity.
Perhaps you’re wondering sometimes where the Shepherd is in your life? Perhaps you feel He’s left you to fend for yourself or has been inattentive to your needs. Trying circumstances always test our faith. Our Shepherd is not merely a well-meaning but strategically incapable minder. He is not a remnant of an obsolete ideal in which Jesus is cast as a personal religious attendant. He is not an honourable but otherwise uninterested Deity. He is here for you in His word of forgiveness. He is here in His body and blood given and shed for you. He tends to you when you are truly in need. He lifts you on His shoulders and carries you when necessary. He shepherds you through this vale of tears and bears you through the portal of death into life. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fourth Sunday of Easter
26 April, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 10:11
2 John 10:18
3 See Galatians 5:22
4 1 John 3:16
Text: John 10:11
Theme: The Necessity of the Shepherd
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The valley of the shadow of death will give way to the light of immortal existence with the triune God, angels, and all the saints. The final goal, the beatific vision of God, the marriage banquet of the Lamb, is nothing short of astonishing- inconceivable in our current fallen condition. Yet, that is precisely the promise and the future for the baptized people of God. The One who knows has said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”1 He says, “I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”2 Thanks be to God for His immeasurable love to us in Christ.
There is but one good Shepherd. God alone is good for only He is sinless; only He is immortal and eternal. Many things are good in life and goodness is a fruit of the Spirit along with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control3 Yet all the goodness that we observe, and invest in, and cultivate in ourselves and others is but a dim reflection of the divine. Christ alone is truly good because only He was selfless without fault. His desire was never for the glory of self but for the glory of the Father and the well-being of the sinner. That may be a mantra which elicits little more than an approving yawn from the faithful (perhaps because they think they have heard it too many times) but it remains the core of Christian truth.
The contrast between the selflessness of Christ and the inborn selfishness of the sinner will always be a point of departure for proclaiming the truth of Christ to an unbelieving world.
In the current climate of our culture the desire of self is something to be indulged, not curbed. We live in a culture that believes in entitlement. The stimulus towards egotism is pervasive. I am entitled to be happy nearly all of the time. I am entitled to have a stress-free, well-paying job. I am entitled to receive more government benefits and pay lower taxes. I am entitled to pursue my personal interests at the expense of others. I am entitled to have the nicest clothes, the nicest car; the nicest house. I am entitled to be me. And I am entitled to believe that others should mostly concur with and support my pursuits.
When the veneer of civility is removed the seedier side of the indulgence of self is revealed for what it really is: first rate idolatry. The consequences are serious and such idolatry is expressed in many ways that clash intensely with the values of society. Homosexuality, abortion and sexual promiscuity transgress God’s will precisely in this way: they are forms of self-indulgence, pursuits of idolatry, unchecked and even fostered as desirable.
The corruption of our nature runs deep, down to the core. Luther describes this corruption of sin as being curved in on oneself. Here is an interesting sociological example. According to a study by Dutch psychologists, restaurant servers who copy their customers’ behavior get double the tips of servers who don’t. In an American style restaurant in the south of Holland, the researchers told half of the servers to repeat their customers’ orders, while the other half were instructed to say something positive, such as, “Coming right up!” The copycat servers average tip was double that of the servers who just said something nice. In commenting on the experiment one researcher said good salespeople know the value of copying the customer. “A good salesperson knows from experience that people like to hear and see themselves.” How readily our actions show that we believe we are entitled to curve in upon ourselves.
But the Spirit lifts the believer to higher and holier things. He tunes us in to the voice of the Shepherd. It is a voice we can only know from His word. Therefore confidence in the Scriptures is crucial for the faith and life of the believer. The early church father, St. Augustine once said, “Faith will falter if the authority of holy scripture is shaken; and if faith falters, love itself decays. For if someone lapses in faith, he inevitably lapses in his loves as well, since he cannot love what he does not believe to be true.”
You cannot love what you do not believe to be true. Yes, you can show a strong affinity, perhaps hedging your bets, keeping your options open. You can pursue the outward performance of deeds which encompass the tangibles of showing love. Through such actions you can seek to acquire praise or avoid chastisement. But true love is a motivation of the Spirit from the heart. Dear friends, we love because we believe. We believe to love is to honour God. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”4
This is not a time-bound message limited in scope or application. Christianity is not just a mitigating force in a world of ungodliness and unbelief. Christianity is not just a moral platform upon which to base the ethics of individuals and societies. Christianity is not just a medium for personal religious devotion. Christianity is not primarily about therapeutic remedies, moral convictions, social improvement, or individual empowerment. All of these things are involved, but belief in Christ is more profound still. The gospel is about the all-encompassing work of the triune God through the person of the Son. The doom of eternal hell has been turned aside. The devastations of Satan are laid to rest. The consequences of all evil, wickedness and unrighteousness are made null and void. Life is pulled from jaws of death. The crucified One has risen and He lives and reigns to all eternity.
Perhaps you’re wondering sometimes where the Shepherd is in your life? Perhaps you feel He’s left you to fend for yourself or has been inattentive to your needs. Trying circumstances always test our faith. Our Shepherd is not merely a well-meaning but strategically incapable minder. He is not a remnant of an obsolete ideal in which Jesus is cast as a personal religious attendant. He is not an honourable but otherwise uninterested Deity. He is here for you in His word of forgiveness. He is here in His body and blood given and shed for you. He tends to you when you are truly in need. He lifts you on His shoulders and carries you when necessary. He shepherds you through this vale of tears and bears you through the portal of death into life. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fourth Sunday of Easter
26 April, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 10:11
2 John 10:18
3 See Galatians 5:22
4 1 John 3:16
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)