+ 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
Sunday, May 17, 2015
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
Saturday, April 25, 2015
ANZAC Day Address 2015
ANZAC DAY ADDRESS 2015
“He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.” (Psalm 9:12) The Holy Scripture says God does not forget. Neither should we. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” One hundred years on, and their memory still lives. One hundred years on, and their sacrifice is still honoured. Gallipoli is the rallying point that galvanised the collective consciousness of two nations. It rightly has prominent place in our memories. But there were other campaigns that suffered terrible loss. The fields of Flanders in France received the blood of more than 5500 ANZACS, killed or wounded, in a single day. Honoured too are those whose lives were forfeit in forgotten corners of the globe. All can bathe in the glow of Gallipoli’s fame, but their specific acts of heroism are not thereby diminished. More than 100,000 service personnel in total have made the supreme sacrifice, including our Aboriginal brothers who often suffered greatly.
No one is left untouched by war. Survivors bear scars and by them they are transformed. The wounds of the body are seldom as deep as the wounds of the heart. Many who fought uttered not a word about the atrocities they witnessed. Often more is said with silence than the multiplication of many words. The memories are too vivid, the hurt is too painful; the grief is too profound. But their stories are still told. They may live and breathe and walk in the normalcy of civilian life but they bear on their individual frames, with the victorious dead, the weight of freedom for the masses.
First light or dusk was often embraced as the opportunity for attack. Soldiers were, accordingly, ordered to be ready, manning their posts as the dawn broke or the sun set. This came to be known as the ‘stand to’, short for ‘stand-to-arms’. It often marked the hour of peril; the moment of truth. Would courage falter? Would strength fail? Who can value life as it should be valued save for God alone? At the moment of truth God does not abandon us to the ‘stand to’. He does not forget. Christ stood in solidarity with sinful humanity and allowed Himself to be hung from a cross. In the gathering light of Easter dawn He stood forth from the grave; the battle completed, peace secured. Only in Christ can the grieving have hope. Only in Christ can the wounded find healing. Only in Christ has the promise of the resurrection of the dead been secured. Time and place are not barriers to Christ, who is immortal. To us, they are the parameters which define our reality.
One hundred years on and the world is still marred by conflict. Some will say the Great War was never ours to fight. We are not here to judge the motivations of diplomacy or duty. We are here to honour those who were faithful in their service. One hundred years on and the appreciation still grows. The ANZACS are not forgotten. We will honour their sacrifice. We will cherish their legacy. We will defend their cause. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. The Almighty will not forget.
Pastor Darrin Kohrt Concordia & Outlying Lutheran Churches, Loxton
“He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.” (Psalm 9:12) The Holy Scripture says God does not forget. Neither should we. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” One hundred years on, and their memory still lives. One hundred years on, and their sacrifice is still honoured. Gallipoli is the rallying point that galvanised the collective consciousness of two nations. It rightly has prominent place in our memories. But there were other campaigns that suffered terrible loss. The fields of Flanders in France received the blood of more than 5500 ANZACS, killed or wounded, in a single day. Honoured too are those whose lives were forfeit in forgotten corners of the globe. All can bathe in the glow of Gallipoli’s fame, but their specific acts of heroism are not thereby diminished. More than 100,000 service personnel in total have made the supreme sacrifice, including our Aboriginal brothers who often suffered greatly.
No one is left untouched by war. Survivors bear scars and by them they are transformed. The wounds of the body are seldom as deep as the wounds of the heart. Many who fought uttered not a word about the atrocities they witnessed. Often more is said with silence than the multiplication of many words. The memories are too vivid, the hurt is too painful; the grief is too profound. But their stories are still told. They may live and breathe and walk in the normalcy of civilian life but they bear on their individual frames, with the victorious dead, the weight of freedom for the masses.
First light or dusk was often embraced as the opportunity for attack. Soldiers were, accordingly, ordered to be ready, manning their posts as the dawn broke or the sun set. This came to be known as the ‘stand to’, short for ‘stand-to-arms’. It often marked the hour of peril; the moment of truth. Would courage falter? Would strength fail? Who can value life as it should be valued save for God alone? At the moment of truth God does not abandon us to the ‘stand to’. He does not forget. Christ stood in solidarity with sinful humanity and allowed Himself to be hung from a cross. In the gathering light of Easter dawn He stood forth from the grave; the battle completed, peace secured. Only in Christ can the grieving have hope. Only in Christ can the wounded find healing. Only in Christ has the promise of the resurrection of the dead been secured. Time and place are not barriers to Christ, who is immortal. To us, they are the parameters which define our reality.
One hundred years on and the world is still marred by conflict. Some will say the Great War was never ours to fight. We are not here to judge the motivations of diplomacy or duty. We are here to honour those who were faithful in their service. One hundred years on and the appreciation still grows. The ANZACS are not forgotten. We will honour their sacrifice. We will cherish their legacy. We will defend their cause. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. The Almighty will not forget.
Pastor Darrin Kohrt Concordia & Outlying Lutheran Churches, Loxton
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Third Sunday of Easter (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Luke 24:46
Theme: The Old Testament Christ
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The risen Christ is among us. Each Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection. God’s people changed from gathering on Saturday, the Sabbath, to the day the tomb was found empty. There was no requirement to do so. In fact, since the redemptive work of Christ has been completed, every day is holy to the Lord. Nevertheless, Sunday seemed most appropriate for the public assembly of the saints. Our hope and salvation rest not in memories of the historical Jesus but in the living Christ who rules and intercedes on behalf of His church.
Again today, we find Jesus with His disciples on that first Easter Sunday. It’s very telling that the risen Jesus did not simply let His astonishing triumph over death speak for itself. He explained Himself on the basis of the Scriptures. Far from indicting that the Old Testament could be dispensed with now that the new era had come, He established its importance. He says, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”1 He knew the apostles would need to witness to the work of Christ not only on the basis of their personal interaction with Him, but also through the Old Testament Scriptures. Easter Sunday was a time of intense catechesis.
The Old Testament doesn’t make casual or occasional reference to Christ. He is its heart and centre. The Old Testament is God’s inspired word. Any effort to relegate it to a second-rate status, whether intentionally or inadvertently, fails to recognize it as the continually relevant revelation of God to the human race. God didn’t come up with a new idea in the sending of Jesus; Christ was the divine plan from the beginning, from eternity. Luke says today, “Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name.”2
God’s plans are not random or arbitrary. The forgiveness of sins is God’s mode of operation from start to finish. But don’t ever assume that the forgiveness of sins is easily grasped or readily received. In fact, as sinners, we cannot grasp it at all without the Holy Spirit. Even after conversion, the powerful draw of the sinful will seeks to pull us away from God’s purposes and plans. God’s law is never done convicting and correcting us. The gospel is never done consoling us. You will never out grow your baptism.
Jesus came so that the last would be first and the first, last. Christ reverses the order for the penitent. Forgiveness is an equalizer beyond human comprehension. That’s what makes the gospel so subversive and at the same time so magnificent. God reconciles the sinner to Himself and in so doing abolishes all human constructions of rank, status, and worthiness. In contrition and faith the prostitute enters heaven while the pope and pastor stand outside. The murderer is received while the federal judge is expelled. The widow and her mite are honoured while the philanthropist and his money are shunned. The one who washes the foot is esteemed above the one who demands others bow at his feet. The exalted are humbled and the humbled are exalted. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”3
We are wandering sheep that have been gathered safely into the fold. We are rebellious children that have been restored to the family. We are refugees from the dominion of Satan that have been given asylum in the kingdom of Christ. More than that, we are paupers who have been made princes, orphans who have been adopted; outcasts who have been given an inheritance. We brought nothing into the world and we will take nothing out of it. But in Christ we have all that we need- and more!
After the resurrection life was a struggle for the early followers of Jesus. Undoubtedly they would have liked all of their challenges to be over. But their Master did not institute a Utopia on earth. We tread the same path they walked. We eat the same sacred food as the Emmaus disciples. But we continue to walk by faith, not by sight. Like them we look forward to Christ’s return in glory. Meanwhile, we do not wait passively nor can we expect life to be problem-free.
Sometimes we do not see the future benefits that result from the struggles of the present. The trials of the day often prepare us for the challenges of the future. Life is full of hidden blessings. Consider the example of the man who was celebrating his 100th birthday. He was married on the same day and had his wife still been living it would have been their 75th anniversary. Healthy and spry for a centenarian his guests asked his secret to remaining so fit. He said, “On the day my wife and I were married we promised each other that the person who was decided to be the loser of an argument would go outside for a walk in the fresh air. I’ve been out in the fresh air ever since.”
The Bible is full of examples of God’s people living by sheer faith and clinging to hope that defied the evidence. Could Joseph see the blessings that would come from being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers? Not only was he elevated to a position of authority, the whole family of Jacob was spared from famine through his protection. Could Daniel have foreseen the blessings that would result from being taken into captivity in Babylon? He gave such powerful testimony after God spared him from the den of lions that King Darius said, “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For He is the living God and He endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end.”4
Think, dear friends, how cherished we are in God’s sight! The apostle says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”5 And that sets us apart from a world of unbelief. It sets us apart from a world that lives only for the moment. It separates us from those whose view of the future is a false security that all will go to a better place. It also distinguishes us from those whose interest in the present involves the dead end of self-indulgence. Note how John continues, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”6 For then we shall be resurrected in body and soul. His promise will not fail for He has already passed through death. Amen
+ In nomine Jesu +
Third Sunday of Easter
19 April, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 24:44
2 Luke 24:45-47
3 Matthew 5:7
4 Daniel 6:26
5 1 John 3:1
6 1 John 3:2
Text: Luke 24:46
Theme: The Old Testament Christ
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The risen Christ is among us. Each Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection. God’s people changed from gathering on Saturday, the Sabbath, to the day the tomb was found empty. There was no requirement to do so. In fact, since the redemptive work of Christ has been completed, every day is holy to the Lord. Nevertheless, Sunday seemed most appropriate for the public assembly of the saints. Our hope and salvation rest not in memories of the historical Jesus but in the living Christ who rules and intercedes on behalf of His church.
Again today, we find Jesus with His disciples on that first Easter Sunday. It’s very telling that the risen Jesus did not simply let His astonishing triumph over death speak for itself. He explained Himself on the basis of the Scriptures. Far from indicting that the Old Testament could be dispensed with now that the new era had come, He established its importance. He says, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”1 He knew the apostles would need to witness to the work of Christ not only on the basis of their personal interaction with Him, but also through the Old Testament Scriptures. Easter Sunday was a time of intense catechesis.
The Old Testament doesn’t make casual or occasional reference to Christ. He is its heart and centre. The Old Testament is God’s inspired word. Any effort to relegate it to a second-rate status, whether intentionally or inadvertently, fails to recognize it as the continually relevant revelation of God to the human race. God didn’t come up with a new idea in the sending of Jesus; Christ was the divine plan from the beginning, from eternity. Luke says today, “Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name.”2
God’s plans are not random or arbitrary. The forgiveness of sins is God’s mode of operation from start to finish. But don’t ever assume that the forgiveness of sins is easily grasped or readily received. In fact, as sinners, we cannot grasp it at all without the Holy Spirit. Even after conversion, the powerful draw of the sinful will seeks to pull us away from God’s purposes and plans. God’s law is never done convicting and correcting us. The gospel is never done consoling us. You will never out grow your baptism.
Jesus came so that the last would be first and the first, last. Christ reverses the order for the penitent. Forgiveness is an equalizer beyond human comprehension. That’s what makes the gospel so subversive and at the same time so magnificent. God reconciles the sinner to Himself and in so doing abolishes all human constructions of rank, status, and worthiness. In contrition and faith the prostitute enters heaven while the pope and pastor stand outside. The murderer is received while the federal judge is expelled. The widow and her mite are honoured while the philanthropist and his money are shunned. The one who washes the foot is esteemed above the one who demands others bow at his feet. The exalted are humbled and the humbled are exalted. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”3
We are wandering sheep that have been gathered safely into the fold. We are rebellious children that have been restored to the family. We are refugees from the dominion of Satan that have been given asylum in the kingdom of Christ. More than that, we are paupers who have been made princes, orphans who have been adopted; outcasts who have been given an inheritance. We brought nothing into the world and we will take nothing out of it. But in Christ we have all that we need- and more!
After the resurrection life was a struggle for the early followers of Jesus. Undoubtedly they would have liked all of their challenges to be over. But their Master did not institute a Utopia on earth. We tread the same path they walked. We eat the same sacred food as the Emmaus disciples. But we continue to walk by faith, not by sight. Like them we look forward to Christ’s return in glory. Meanwhile, we do not wait passively nor can we expect life to be problem-free.
Sometimes we do not see the future benefits that result from the struggles of the present. The trials of the day often prepare us for the challenges of the future. Life is full of hidden blessings. Consider the example of the man who was celebrating his 100th birthday. He was married on the same day and had his wife still been living it would have been their 75th anniversary. Healthy and spry for a centenarian his guests asked his secret to remaining so fit. He said, “On the day my wife and I were married we promised each other that the person who was decided to be the loser of an argument would go outside for a walk in the fresh air. I’ve been out in the fresh air ever since.”
The Bible is full of examples of God’s people living by sheer faith and clinging to hope that defied the evidence. Could Joseph see the blessings that would come from being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers? Not only was he elevated to a position of authority, the whole family of Jacob was spared from famine through his protection. Could Daniel have foreseen the blessings that would result from being taken into captivity in Babylon? He gave such powerful testimony after God spared him from the den of lions that King Darius said, “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For He is the living God and He endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end.”4
Think, dear friends, how cherished we are in God’s sight! The apostle says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”5 And that sets us apart from a world of unbelief. It sets us apart from a world that lives only for the moment. It separates us from those whose view of the future is a false security that all will go to a better place. It also distinguishes us from those whose interest in the present involves the dead end of self-indulgence. Note how John continues, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”6 For then we shall be resurrected in body and soul. His promise will not fail for He has already passed through death. Amen
+ In nomine Jesu +
Third Sunday of Easter
19 April, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 24:44
2 Luke 24:45-47
3 Matthew 5:7
4 Daniel 6:26
5 1 John 3:1
6 1 John 3:2
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Second Sunday Of Easter (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 20:20
Theme: Joy In His Presence
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Christ is risen!
There was bound to be fall out. Collateral damage was unavoidable. An ordinary person doesn’t come back from the dead without causing a stir, let alone, someone of Jesus’ significance. The media would have a field day today. Those first hours were a blur of confusion, uncertainty, excitement, fear, bewilderment, and doubt. Was it really true! What did it all mean! How would the Roman authorities react? What would the Jewish leaders do? The disciples were huddled together in fear. It was still Easter Sunday.
The resurrection is not a truth you can wrap your head around overnight. The apostles were nearly dumbfounded until Pentecost. Proclaiming the risen Jesus, and in Him forgiveness, life and salvation, was then the all-consuming focus of the rest of their ministries. All but one were reportedly martyred for the cause. The Book of Acts records the activity that typified their ministry. “Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead.”1
The preaching of the resurrection was marked with a sense of urgency, with tenacity, and a willingness to suffer rejection. The suffering Servant was living. He had overcome the power of death. It was news that could not be kept quiet. It could not be muzzled. St. Paul says, “When I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”2 That continues to be the mission of the church.
It’s convenient, obviously, to use Thomas as the reference point for those who are skeptical that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. Thomas has the benefit of putting his fingers into the flesh of the risen Lord and his doubt is quickly overturned. The evidence was indisputable. Today’s cynics, however, should not be singled-out as being unique. It is the temptation of every generation to see itself as more enlightened than all previous ones. But Christianity is no respecter of generations in this regard. Accumulated knowledge does not translate into a more superior status in relation to God. We may have supercomputers and spaceships but these don’t make God more accessible. As science discloses more of the mysteries of creation we are finding that the wisdom and power of God is not being eliminated but being made all the more necessary. The scientific enterprise is in the process of coming full circle.
How then to proclaim the resurrection to people whose bellies are full, bank accounts are overflowing, egos are over-inflated, and sense of holiness is being destroyed by a largely vulgar secular society? The appetite for spiritual truth is not easily whetted. Personal reflection is a good starting point. It’s easy to become a too-comfortable Christian. The same applies for pastors. Certainty of salvation is not the same as complacency in our sins. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.”3
We’re not necessarily meant to always fill comfortable even in the house of God. God’s holy word is confronting. It is convicting. It penetrates our hearts and reveals our motives. As it operates in that capacity it doesn’t result in a relaxing process for us. It names us as sinners and goes to work on us. We don’t come into His presence to have our egos stroked. We don’t gather in a casual atmosphere.
But we are most certainly to believe that God’s house is a refuge for us. It is here that Christ is among us as one who serves. If your life is lacking in happiness, here you find joy. If your life is full of turmoil, here you find peace. If your life is beset with conflict and contention, here you have the comfort of knowing you are reconciled to the heavenly Father through Christ. Here the forgiveness of sins binds us together, heals us, and empowers us. Luther says, “Satan will more easily put up with all other articles than this one concerning the forgiveness of sins.”4 The devil cannot bear to see people reconciled to God. But that’s exactly what Christ has done. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”5
When the conscience, flooded with doubt, burdened with anxiety, knows not where to turn it can recede into itself like a turtle disappearing into its shell. Or, it can grope aimlessly about for any offer of support. Both are dangerous decisions. The bottling up of fear, doubt, and anxiety only cripples our ability to mend and engage relationships. Grasping at options that might ease the pain but not address the ailment- engaging in fantasy, overindulgence in alcohol or drugs, pursuing distractions to the point of obsession- only compound the problem in the long run. Christianity is the truth for realists. A real God interacts with real people. Here the baptized gather with a family that transcends bloodlines. Here our faith is nourished by Christ’s body and blood, the equivalent of putting our fingers into the side of the risen Jesus.
Dear friends, no one can stand aloof from the truth of the resurrection. The crucified Jesus was not a tragic failure; death could not hold Him. Because this truth makes a claim on humanity it makes a claim on each of us. Christ shares our human nature. He did not relinquish it after His ascension. He remains the one Christ, God and man forever as the Athanasian Creed says, “not by changing the Godhead into flesh but by taking on the humanity into God.” The implication is universal. “At his coming all men shall rise with their bodies and give an account of their own deeds.”6 Neither the believer nor the unbeliever is exempt from the bodily resurrection; the difference is the eternal destination.
The resurrection is the bedrock upon which our hope is built. The Israelites celebrated a jubilee year every 50th year7. It was the year in which debts were forgiven, grievances were put aside, and property returned to its original owners. So too, the season of Easter involves 50 days of jubilee. Holiness and joy mark our celebrations of the resurrection. Hallelujahs roll off our tongues and elation fills our hearts. Even in the midst of adversity we have life; and we have it abundantly. Amen.
Christ is risen!
+ In nomine Jesu +
Second Sunday of Easter
12 April, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Acts 17:2-3
2 1 Corinthians 9:16
3 1 John 1:8-10
4 AE 44:21, 115
5 Romans 4:25
6 The Athanasian Creed
7 See Leviticus 25:11
Text: John 20:20
Theme: Joy In His Presence
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Christ is risen!
There was bound to be fall out. Collateral damage was unavoidable. An ordinary person doesn’t come back from the dead without causing a stir, let alone, someone of Jesus’ significance. The media would have a field day today. Those first hours were a blur of confusion, uncertainty, excitement, fear, bewilderment, and doubt. Was it really true! What did it all mean! How would the Roman authorities react? What would the Jewish leaders do? The disciples were huddled together in fear. It was still Easter Sunday.
The resurrection is not a truth you can wrap your head around overnight. The apostles were nearly dumbfounded until Pentecost. Proclaiming the risen Jesus, and in Him forgiveness, life and salvation, was then the all-consuming focus of the rest of their ministries. All but one were reportedly martyred for the cause. The Book of Acts records the activity that typified their ministry. “Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead.”1
The preaching of the resurrection was marked with a sense of urgency, with tenacity, and a willingness to suffer rejection. The suffering Servant was living. He had overcome the power of death. It was news that could not be kept quiet. It could not be muzzled. St. Paul says, “When I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”2 That continues to be the mission of the church.
It’s convenient, obviously, to use Thomas as the reference point for those who are skeptical that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. Thomas has the benefit of putting his fingers into the flesh of the risen Lord and his doubt is quickly overturned. The evidence was indisputable. Today’s cynics, however, should not be singled-out as being unique. It is the temptation of every generation to see itself as more enlightened than all previous ones. But Christianity is no respecter of generations in this regard. Accumulated knowledge does not translate into a more superior status in relation to God. We may have supercomputers and spaceships but these don’t make God more accessible. As science discloses more of the mysteries of creation we are finding that the wisdom and power of God is not being eliminated but being made all the more necessary. The scientific enterprise is in the process of coming full circle.
How then to proclaim the resurrection to people whose bellies are full, bank accounts are overflowing, egos are over-inflated, and sense of holiness is being destroyed by a largely vulgar secular society? The appetite for spiritual truth is not easily whetted. Personal reflection is a good starting point. It’s easy to become a too-comfortable Christian. The same applies for pastors. Certainty of salvation is not the same as complacency in our sins. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.”3
We’re not necessarily meant to always fill comfortable even in the house of God. God’s holy word is confronting. It is convicting. It penetrates our hearts and reveals our motives. As it operates in that capacity it doesn’t result in a relaxing process for us. It names us as sinners and goes to work on us. We don’t come into His presence to have our egos stroked. We don’t gather in a casual atmosphere.
But we are most certainly to believe that God’s house is a refuge for us. It is here that Christ is among us as one who serves. If your life is lacking in happiness, here you find joy. If your life is full of turmoil, here you find peace. If your life is beset with conflict and contention, here you have the comfort of knowing you are reconciled to the heavenly Father through Christ. Here the forgiveness of sins binds us together, heals us, and empowers us. Luther says, “Satan will more easily put up with all other articles than this one concerning the forgiveness of sins.”4 The devil cannot bear to see people reconciled to God. But that’s exactly what Christ has done. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”5
When the conscience, flooded with doubt, burdened with anxiety, knows not where to turn it can recede into itself like a turtle disappearing into its shell. Or, it can grope aimlessly about for any offer of support. Both are dangerous decisions. The bottling up of fear, doubt, and anxiety only cripples our ability to mend and engage relationships. Grasping at options that might ease the pain but not address the ailment- engaging in fantasy, overindulgence in alcohol or drugs, pursuing distractions to the point of obsession- only compound the problem in the long run. Christianity is the truth for realists. A real God interacts with real people. Here the baptized gather with a family that transcends bloodlines. Here our faith is nourished by Christ’s body and blood, the equivalent of putting our fingers into the side of the risen Jesus.
Dear friends, no one can stand aloof from the truth of the resurrection. The crucified Jesus was not a tragic failure; death could not hold Him. Because this truth makes a claim on humanity it makes a claim on each of us. Christ shares our human nature. He did not relinquish it after His ascension. He remains the one Christ, God and man forever as the Athanasian Creed says, “not by changing the Godhead into flesh but by taking on the humanity into God.” The implication is universal. “At his coming all men shall rise with their bodies and give an account of their own deeds.”6 Neither the believer nor the unbeliever is exempt from the bodily resurrection; the difference is the eternal destination.
The resurrection is the bedrock upon which our hope is built. The Israelites celebrated a jubilee year every 50th year7. It was the year in which debts were forgiven, grievances were put aside, and property returned to its original owners. So too, the season of Easter involves 50 days of jubilee. Holiness and joy mark our celebrations of the resurrection. Hallelujahs roll off our tongues and elation fills our hearts. Even in the midst of adversity we have life; and we have it abundantly. Amen.
Christ is risen!
+ In nomine Jesu +
Second Sunday of Easter
12 April, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Acts 17:2-3
2 1 Corinthians 9:16
3 1 John 1:8-10
4 AE 44:21, 115
5 Romans 4:25
6 The Athanasian Creed
7 See Leviticus 25:11
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