+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 10:11
Theme: The Matchless Shepherd
Dear friends of the Risen Lord,
Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd. How can this truth be to our ears anything more than an affectionate but obsolete analogy of the biblical past? Is it an image of the Saviour that’s gone past its use-by date? Perhaps we’ve done well to emphasize the providential aspects of Christ’s shepherding- His bestowal of stability and sustenance represented by “green pastures and quiet waters”1- but what of His role in defending us from danger? We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Deliver us from evil,”2 that is, [also] the evil one- Satan.
Every age is subject to heresies and false teaching which, though not new in their essentials, take on different guises. The church stands as a sentinel, alerting all to the dangers that confront the human race. Truth cannot be safeguarded without defending against the opposing falsehoods that undermine it. It’s no simple task. And it’s naïve to think that conflicting claims of truth can be harmonized. Some will be subjugated and others will capitulate.
There’s no shortage of false teachings prevalent in society today. Some are brash and clamor out with loud voices. Others are more subtle, cloaked in plausible-sounding propositions. The church and the individual Christian who fail to identify and assess them do so at their own peril. One of the more influential philosophies which has for some time been making inroads from the intellectual elite into the general populace is the teaching of relativism.
The idea is that one possibility is only more or less true (or real) than an alternative-perhaps depending on the individual circumstances. Reality is your own construction. Absolutes are absolutely unallowable. A philosophy of relativism relies on uncertainty. It preys upon lack of conviction; absence of certitude. “Whatever works for you,” is a catch phrase. Undoubtedly some relativity in thinking is the result of the desire for personal rights in society. But the deeper implication here is not just a matter of personal freedoms, but the skepticism that there is any one right answer or solution even to fundamental questions. How much do we cower in fear of political correctness in society today!
Again, what we mean here is not the self-contradiction or loss of perspective that is a general liability of sinfulness. As sinners we are always subject to inconsistency and unfairness. What we are considering here is the idea that truth is not definable. Life is approached basically from an ad hoc perspective based on how people feel or react to any given situation. Why is it so difficult to get clear support for the sanctity of life or for the biblical definition of marriage even among Christians? In short, because they doubt whether God’s truths apply to all people. The certainties of Scripture become only guidelines or possibilities. The individual becomes the judge, not the word of God. This is the mindset of relativism.
The heart and centre of the gospel and its implications become disconnected not only from the social and ecclesiastical activities of the believer, but even from their worldview. The perspective on time and eternity becomes imbalanced- disconnected from creedal foundations. More than a logical inconsistency it either signals a double-minded, duplicitous approach to God, or betrays a nominal connection with the faith. In Western society there is a rapidly diminishing correlation between peoples’ church affiliation and their actual belief about truth and morality.
It’s not a new problem. It’s as old as the first sinner, Adam, who tried to justify himself before the Almighty. The moment we adopt an attitude of relativism towards our status with God we are in grave danger. Yet it’s easily and commonly done because it is a painless way to excuse and justify our sins in general and ourselves as sinners in particular. We want to believe God will be more lenient with us than He will be with other, more serious sinners. Our rationalizations are better and isn’t it all relative anyway! The call to repentance rings out against all such efforts. The last thing we would want to be relativized is the amount of compassion God shows to one person as opposed to another. We each need the fullness of His grace.
Obviously two mutually exclusive propositions cannot both be true. For example, at death a person either enters into some type of afterlife, heaven or hell, or he or she ceases to exist. It can’t be both. Jesus Christ spoke with conviction, not to give otherwise ignorant and despairing people a false sense of hope, but because He embodied truth. He lived it. He ratified it. He clarified it. He made it clear that though people may go on living aside from truth or in denial of its existence this is only a temporary situation. One which will be completely resolved at His Second Coming.
Some claim that truth and morality can only be defined within practical circumstances and Christianity is too dogmatic in this regard. But these claims are misguided. Jesus Christ appeared alive after His crucifixion showing Himself to more than five hundred at one time. What could be more tangible, more practical, than that for a foundation for Christianity? Christianity is immanently practical because He lived truthfully in the real world and He bids us to do the same. The more mysterious teachings of the Scripture should not detract from that realism. St. John said today, “Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”1 John 3:18
The believer is declared justified before God on the basis of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. St. Peter reminds us, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”3 He or she is then freed to live selflessly by virtue of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. These are the ramifications of baptism through which we are incorporated into the life of the triune God. This life of cross-bearing is sustained by the Spirit through Christ’s gift of absolution and body and blood of the Lord’s Supper. The Office of the Ministry was instituted to attend to these matters. Three times did the risen Lord direct Peter to take care of His sheep4.
Satan will take no holiday from his schemes against the faithful. If he cannot break down your trust from without he will try to do it from within. He would like us to stand self-condemned. But here is the good news: God is greater than your heart. Your tendency to self-condemnation cannot carry more weight with God than the condemnation of His Son for your sins. Your anxiety and worry cannot wield more influence on the heart of the Father than the peace achieved by the reconciliation of the Son. All of your inconsistencies and contradictions, all of the conflicted tensions and emotions that beset the heart and mind will be resolved in the light and clarity of the resurrection to eternal life. We have a foretaste of this peace already.
It may seem redundant, even irreverent to ask in what sense Christ is the Good Shepherd. Yet it is an opportunity to comfort anxious hearts with the truth of the gospel. He is not tending the sheep for personal gain. He is not driven by self-interest. He never expresses ill-will, impatience, or malice towards His flock. His compassion is so complete He sacrifices His own life that theirs might be spared. Finally, Jesus is not simply one good shepherd among a host of many others in that category. He is the Chief Shepherd, the guardian and curator of souls. He is the only protection from the wolfery of Satan and the only refuge from the fires of hell. The Holy Spirit Himself is His staff. Heaven is His holy pasture. We are His redeemed people. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fourth Sunday of Easter
29 April 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 See Psalm 23
2 Matthew 6:13
3 Acts 4:12
4 See John Ch 21
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Second Sunday of Easter
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 20:26
Theme: Peace Among Us
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The fortunes of that frightful Friday are quickly reversed. The end had not come. Rather, life was restored and the future previewed. It was more than mere humans could appreciate. Even then it required faith. It still does. In this life God wishes to be apprehended by faith. The resurrection doesn’t overturn this premise but establishes it. Jesus proves He is God but only by faith is this truth received.
Today the fearful disciples are met by the risen Christ. Thomas was not there the first time Jesus brought peace to their troubled hearts and minds. Was he really unconvinced by the testimony of his ten brothers in the faith whom he knew so well? Had the betrayal of Judas shaken his confidence? Were the others delusional? Were they trying to pull the wool over his eyes? Was he just still in shock? The crisis is soon resolved when he encounters Jesus in the flesh. The scars remained but Jesus was alive. The deadly regime of sin was vanquished. The curse of Eden was abolished. Jesus performed no nifty magic act. In Him the human race was remade.
Dear friends, the salvation Jesus brought was not a convenient or merely timely solution to a problem that could have been addressed some other way. There are many who still don’t believe that apart from Christ the fate of humanity is lost. Once we move away from the teaching that all humans are born in the corruption of sin the absolute necessity of the gospel is soon overturned. The call to repentance is qualified overtly or subtly and becomes less urgent. Firstly infants and young children are exempted from being culpable for guilt. Perhaps some symbolic cleansing is seen as ritually desirable but there is no real danger to the soul. Next the problem of sin is redefined or narrowed to addressing the actual evil deeds of people at the expense of the root cause. Once the regenerate person is on the path to obedience the need for forgiveness from original guilt can easily decline into a nonentity unless the need is continually reaffirmed.
The ability to resist temptation- a power and gift of the Holy Spirit- can be misunderstood as meaning the believer is no longer blameworthy as an instinctive sinner. Then unbelievers who pursue an outward form of kindness and generosity are spared judgment on that basis. Finally, only the Hitlers of the world are in need of the full and redeeming pardon that Christ secured.
The Gospel appears to have triumphed. The message of Christianity is changing the world. By external assessments there is noticeable progress. But, in fact, the Gospel is being relegated to a sort of ‘planned obsolescence’. Like a pebble that starts an avalanche it’s not really needed once things are set in motion, except to start the process in some still unenlightened part of the world.
Christ died for the ungodly1 but in this restructured code of belief the ungodly are only a very small and particularly pernicious group. That doesn’t mean that the claim isn’t boldly stated that Christ died for all2. Yet the conclusion is that His death was superfluous- sort of an unessential redundancy because most were going to be saved anyway. Almost as a safeguard against the rejection of the gospel the safety net of human goodness was always there and the conscience is pacified by it. The sacraments too are compromised. Baptism becomes extraneous to the preaching and teaching of the gospel- a sort of ad hoc extra, a nonessential for the sinners’ reconciliation with the Father. Holy Communion is seen as a sentimental ritual rather than sacred nourishment.
In the face of such diluting of the facts we have the sure teaching of Scripture. It remains our defence against attacks from within and without. All are damnable sinners. No exceptions. Christ was sacrificed for all such sinners. No exceptions. Still, doubt can pester even the strongest believer. It may not be the incredulity of Thomas- so fresh and raw. The trauma of Jesus’ demise was etched in his heart and mind. His body was under Roman jurisdiction. There was no hope of reprieve. The cross was lifted. The tomb was sealed. But now- the claim that He walked among them. The Holy Spirit carries our faith through such challenges. He must or we would all succumb to unbelief. Consider what the Scripture says, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.”3 And again, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”4
We will see the same scars Thomas did. The nail marks and the spear wound remain. They stand as eternal testimonies to the ultimate sacrifice; supreme tokens of unfathomable love. St. John describes a scene from heaven in this way, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.”5 There is no way to extract the resurrected Christ from the crucifixion. They are one and the same person. There are not two Christs, but one. His past cannot be forgiven as if it were a bad memory needing to be erased. His past, His crucifixion begets forgiveness.
Jesus does not move beyond the trauma of His life like a victim needing a new identity. The crucifixion defines Him. The resurrection validates Him. He receives all glory and honour as the ascended and enthroned Son of God not because He faced death like a violent champion of war, but because He humbly paid the supreme sacrifice. He did not force His enemies to worship Him but died even for the unrighteous. This truth is the soil in which our faith grows. The resurrection frees us from the condemning power of death. It frees us to die in self-sacrifice to others. Doubt will always be the tool of Satan. But it has no real foundation.
Thomas put his hand into the wounds of Jesus’ flesh. It was the cure for His doubt.
We now receive into our mouths that flesh and the fruit of those wounds He bore. It is the cure for our sins. The sacrament is underpinned by the truth of the incarnation- Jesus’ physical, bodily presence. Thomas touched Christ’s resurrected body that bore the scars of the crucifixion. We now eat the life-giving food that absorbs the scars of our sins into His immortal life.
Dear friends, when Jesus appears to His disciples after His resurrection He restores and reforms the Christian community. What two words are central in Jesus’ greeting of His disciples? Peace and forgiveness! These characterize the divine countenance toward sinners because of what Jesus has done. He empowers them to carry that forgiveness to the nations. The word of God’s servant, His minister, is the Holy Spirit’s word. This word is the substance of our continual communication with the living Lord. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Second Sunday of Easter
15 April 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 See Romans 5:6
2 See 2 Corinthians 5:15
3 Romans 8:11
4 1 Corinthians 12:3
5 Revelation 5:6
Text: John 20:26
Theme: Peace Among Us
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
The fortunes of that frightful Friday are quickly reversed. The end had not come. Rather, life was restored and the future previewed. It was more than mere humans could appreciate. Even then it required faith. It still does. In this life God wishes to be apprehended by faith. The resurrection doesn’t overturn this premise but establishes it. Jesus proves He is God but only by faith is this truth received.
Today the fearful disciples are met by the risen Christ. Thomas was not there the first time Jesus brought peace to their troubled hearts and minds. Was he really unconvinced by the testimony of his ten brothers in the faith whom he knew so well? Had the betrayal of Judas shaken his confidence? Were the others delusional? Were they trying to pull the wool over his eyes? Was he just still in shock? The crisis is soon resolved when he encounters Jesus in the flesh. The scars remained but Jesus was alive. The deadly regime of sin was vanquished. The curse of Eden was abolished. Jesus performed no nifty magic act. In Him the human race was remade.
Dear friends, the salvation Jesus brought was not a convenient or merely timely solution to a problem that could have been addressed some other way. There are many who still don’t believe that apart from Christ the fate of humanity is lost. Once we move away from the teaching that all humans are born in the corruption of sin the absolute necessity of the gospel is soon overturned. The call to repentance is qualified overtly or subtly and becomes less urgent. Firstly infants and young children are exempted from being culpable for guilt. Perhaps some symbolic cleansing is seen as ritually desirable but there is no real danger to the soul. Next the problem of sin is redefined or narrowed to addressing the actual evil deeds of people at the expense of the root cause. Once the regenerate person is on the path to obedience the need for forgiveness from original guilt can easily decline into a nonentity unless the need is continually reaffirmed.
The ability to resist temptation- a power and gift of the Holy Spirit- can be misunderstood as meaning the believer is no longer blameworthy as an instinctive sinner. Then unbelievers who pursue an outward form of kindness and generosity are spared judgment on that basis. Finally, only the Hitlers of the world are in need of the full and redeeming pardon that Christ secured.
The Gospel appears to have triumphed. The message of Christianity is changing the world. By external assessments there is noticeable progress. But, in fact, the Gospel is being relegated to a sort of ‘planned obsolescence’. Like a pebble that starts an avalanche it’s not really needed once things are set in motion, except to start the process in some still unenlightened part of the world.
Christ died for the ungodly1 but in this restructured code of belief the ungodly are only a very small and particularly pernicious group. That doesn’t mean that the claim isn’t boldly stated that Christ died for all2. Yet the conclusion is that His death was superfluous- sort of an unessential redundancy because most were going to be saved anyway. Almost as a safeguard against the rejection of the gospel the safety net of human goodness was always there and the conscience is pacified by it. The sacraments too are compromised. Baptism becomes extraneous to the preaching and teaching of the gospel- a sort of ad hoc extra, a nonessential for the sinners’ reconciliation with the Father. Holy Communion is seen as a sentimental ritual rather than sacred nourishment.
In the face of such diluting of the facts we have the sure teaching of Scripture. It remains our defence against attacks from within and without. All are damnable sinners. No exceptions. Christ was sacrificed for all such sinners. No exceptions. Still, doubt can pester even the strongest believer. It may not be the incredulity of Thomas- so fresh and raw. The trauma of Jesus’ demise was etched in his heart and mind. His body was under Roman jurisdiction. There was no hope of reprieve. The cross was lifted. The tomb was sealed. But now- the claim that He walked among them. The Holy Spirit carries our faith through such challenges. He must or we would all succumb to unbelief. Consider what the Scripture says, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.”3 And again, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”4
We will see the same scars Thomas did. The nail marks and the spear wound remain. They stand as eternal testimonies to the ultimate sacrifice; supreme tokens of unfathomable love. St. John describes a scene from heaven in this way, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.”5 There is no way to extract the resurrected Christ from the crucifixion. They are one and the same person. There are not two Christs, but one. His past cannot be forgiven as if it were a bad memory needing to be erased. His past, His crucifixion begets forgiveness.
Jesus does not move beyond the trauma of His life like a victim needing a new identity. The crucifixion defines Him. The resurrection validates Him. He receives all glory and honour as the ascended and enthroned Son of God not because He faced death like a violent champion of war, but because He humbly paid the supreme sacrifice. He did not force His enemies to worship Him but died even for the unrighteous. This truth is the soil in which our faith grows. The resurrection frees us from the condemning power of death. It frees us to die in self-sacrifice to others. Doubt will always be the tool of Satan. But it has no real foundation.
Thomas put his hand into the wounds of Jesus’ flesh. It was the cure for His doubt.
We now receive into our mouths that flesh and the fruit of those wounds He bore. It is the cure for our sins. The sacrament is underpinned by the truth of the incarnation- Jesus’ physical, bodily presence. Thomas touched Christ’s resurrected body that bore the scars of the crucifixion. We now eat the life-giving food that absorbs the scars of our sins into His immortal life.
Dear friends, when Jesus appears to His disciples after His resurrection He restores and reforms the Christian community. What two words are central in Jesus’ greeting of His disciples? Peace and forgiveness! These characterize the divine countenance toward sinners because of what Jesus has done. He empowers them to carry that forgiveness to the nations. The word of God’s servant, His minister, is the Holy Spirit’s word. This word is the substance of our continual communication with the living Lord. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Second Sunday of Easter
15 April 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 See Romans 5:6
2 See 2 Corinthians 5:15
3 Romans 8:11
4 1 Corinthians 12:3
5 Revelation 5:6
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Resurrection of Our Lord 2012
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Mark 16:8
Theme: Deferred Joy
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
The women fled from the tomb trembling and bewildered! An empty sepulcher hadn’t crossed their minds. An angelic greeting was not on their agenda. Their Lord was dead and though shock had perhaps not yet given way to acceptance and grief unplanned encounters only confused their thoughts. They saw where His limp body had been laid. They were certain to find Him there. They were visibly shaken and hurried off.
Jesus lives! But that was by no means the first conclusion reached on Easter morning. Christ eventually turned the despair of His followers into joy. He served notice that death no longer has the final say. Today is Easter Sunday, the Sunday of Christ’s Resurrection. It is the highpoint of the Church Year. Here our faith stands on God’s greatest intervention in the human demise. The anchor of hope, the bedrock of certainty, the foundation of joy all rest on Jesus’ triumph over death. Sin is disarmed. Satan is silenced. The Crucified One lives! Through your baptismal faith you live in Him. God has not come to visit but to dwell permanently with His people. The resurrection of Christ is the power and preview of God’s life among us.
What does the apostle say, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”1 Appropriately, these truths are the heart and centre of our creed. To the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection He said, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”2 The living God, the truth of the resurrection confronts the same skeptical minds today. Only the message that the Crucified One lives can overcome the greatest sin: The sin of unbelief.
Of course we shouldn’t get the idea that at Easter the desires of the sinful nature simply cease even for the Christian. We are always looking for legal protection for our favourite sins. Then sinner is always happy when the law of the land affords protection for things deemed offensive to God. And the more sophisticated we become the more ‘spiritually legitimate’ our defense needs to be. What greater argument then that Easter gives us license to take liberty with God’s law? Suddenly too, the examples of the great figures of old are called on for justification. Moses permitted divorce. David committed adultery. Lot abandoned his daughters to homosexual offenders. Our indiscretions must surely be trivial in comparison? Soon we are putting far more effort into searching for vindication than we are for absolution. Repentance is much easier if we think we have already mounted a reasonable defence! But it is a game of vanity.
Easter doesn’t mean we’re no longer sinners. It means we have forgiveness and a new power to face temptation. Cycles of sin and selfishness are always in danger of controlling our behavior. We become filled with frustration and that leads to anger, then anger gains the upper hand and it ends in regret. We become filled with fear and that leads to anxiety, then anxiety gains the upper hand and it ends in depression. We become filled with doubt and that leads to skepticism, then skepticism gains the upper hand and it ends in unbelief. We become filled with selfishness and that leads to addiction, then addiction gets the upper hand and it ends in abuse. And the scenarios are as endless as our sinful natures are perverse.
How can things change? How will deaf ears be opened? How will hardened hearts be broken? How will selfishness be controlled and unrighteousness overthrown? Not by any power or persuasion of human cleverness or ingenuity. He doesn’t legitimize our ways. He says, “Go…and leave your life of sin.”3 How? His truth is not static information. It has surgical precision and divine power. The Holy Spirit conforms the believer to the living Christ. He is the pardon for abusers, the scapegoat for addicts, hope for the despairing and calm for the wrathful. He is peace in times of turmoil and certainty in times of doubt. In the security of His salvation we can live sacrificially for others.
During the Revolutionary War in America a young officer in the British army became engaged to a young lady in England before embarking with his regiment. In one of the battles of the Revolution the officer was badly wounded and lost a leg. He wrote to his fiancé telling her he was disfigured, maimed, and so changed from what he had been when she had last seen him he felt it was his duty to release her from all obligation to become his wife. Though heartbroken he was sincere. The young lady responded with no less a noble answer. She dismissed all thought of refusing to marry him because of what had happened in battle, and said she was willing to be his bride if there was enough of his body left to hold his soul!
Dear friends, life can be bruising. We accumulate wounds and scars. We may even tire of our own sinful ways. We may be weary of the burden of guilt and remorse. But God has hidden all of our infirmities in the wounds of Christ. Your guilt has been baptismally buried. You are fed with the food of immortality. Satan cannot overcome you. Christ’s resurrection prevents it. Sin cannot enslave you. You live in Christ’s freedom. You are His bride and He will resurrect your spent and battle-ravaged body to be like His glorious body. How short the time really is until the fever of life will cease!
There was a little girl whose home was near the cemetery and in order to go to the local store she had to follow a path that lead through the cemetery along the graves. But she never seemed to have any sense of fear even when she returned at dusk. Someone asked her “Aren’t you afraid to walk through the cemetery alone and in the dark?” “Oh, no,” she replied, “My home is just beyond and the light is always on.”
The Scripture says we have no enduring city here4. Yet we need not fear for our home is just beyond the cemetery. There beams the brilliant countenance of Christ. The dawn of Easter will never fade. The Father spreads His canopy as an eternal fortress. The Holy Spirit permeates the heart of every saint. St. John, who beheld it most clearly recorded what he heard; “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”5 Thanks be to the risen Christ who reigns eternally. Amen.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
+ in nomine Jesu +
The Resurrection of our Lord
Easter Sunday
8 April, 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
2 Luke 20:38
3 John 8:11
4 See Hebrews 13:14
5 Revelation 21:3-4
6 See John 1:29
7 Job 19:25-26
Text: Mark 16:8
Theme: Deferred Joy
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
The women fled from the tomb trembling and bewildered! An empty sepulcher hadn’t crossed their minds. An angelic greeting was not on their agenda. Their Lord was dead and though shock had perhaps not yet given way to acceptance and grief unplanned encounters only confused their thoughts. They saw where His limp body had been laid. They were certain to find Him there. They were visibly shaken and hurried off.
Jesus lives! But that was by no means the first conclusion reached on Easter morning. Christ eventually turned the despair of His followers into joy. He served notice that death no longer has the final say. Today is Easter Sunday, the Sunday of Christ’s Resurrection. It is the highpoint of the Church Year. Here our faith stands on God’s greatest intervention in the human demise. The anchor of hope, the bedrock of certainty, the foundation of joy all rest on Jesus’ triumph over death. Sin is disarmed. Satan is silenced. The Crucified One lives! Through your baptismal faith you live in Him. God has not come to visit but to dwell permanently with His people. The resurrection of Christ is the power and preview of God’s life among us.
What does the apostle say, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”1 Appropriately, these truths are the heart and centre of our creed. To the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection He said, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”2 The living God, the truth of the resurrection confronts the same skeptical minds today. Only the message that the Crucified One lives can overcome the greatest sin: The sin of unbelief.
Of course we shouldn’t get the idea that at Easter the desires of the sinful nature simply cease even for the Christian. We are always looking for legal protection for our favourite sins. Then sinner is always happy when the law of the land affords protection for things deemed offensive to God. And the more sophisticated we become the more ‘spiritually legitimate’ our defense needs to be. What greater argument then that Easter gives us license to take liberty with God’s law? Suddenly too, the examples of the great figures of old are called on for justification. Moses permitted divorce. David committed adultery. Lot abandoned his daughters to homosexual offenders. Our indiscretions must surely be trivial in comparison? Soon we are putting far more effort into searching for vindication than we are for absolution. Repentance is much easier if we think we have already mounted a reasonable defence! But it is a game of vanity.
Easter doesn’t mean we’re no longer sinners. It means we have forgiveness and a new power to face temptation. Cycles of sin and selfishness are always in danger of controlling our behavior. We become filled with frustration and that leads to anger, then anger gains the upper hand and it ends in regret. We become filled with fear and that leads to anxiety, then anxiety gains the upper hand and it ends in depression. We become filled with doubt and that leads to skepticism, then skepticism gains the upper hand and it ends in unbelief. We become filled with selfishness and that leads to addiction, then addiction gets the upper hand and it ends in abuse. And the scenarios are as endless as our sinful natures are perverse.
How can things change? How will deaf ears be opened? How will hardened hearts be broken? How will selfishness be controlled and unrighteousness overthrown? Not by any power or persuasion of human cleverness or ingenuity. He doesn’t legitimize our ways. He says, “Go…and leave your life of sin.”3 How? His truth is not static information. It has surgical precision and divine power. The Holy Spirit conforms the believer to the living Christ. He is the pardon for abusers, the scapegoat for addicts, hope for the despairing and calm for the wrathful. He is peace in times of turmoil and certainty in times of doubt. In the security of His salvation we can live sacrificially for others.
During the Revolutionary War in America a young officer in the British army became engaged to a young lady in England before embarking with his regiment. In one of the battles of the Revolution the officer was badly wounded and lost a leg. He wrote to his fiancé telling her he was disfigured, maimed, and so changed from what he had been when she had last seen him he felt it was his duty to release her from all obligation to become his wife. Though heartbroken he was sincere. The young lady responded with no less a noble answer. She dismissed all thought of refusing to marry him because of what had happened in battle, and said she was willing to be his bride if there was enough of his body left to hold his soul!
Dear friends, life can be bruising. We accumulate wounds and scars. We may even tire of our own sinful ways. We may be weary of the burden of guilt and remorse. But God has hidden all of our infirmities in the wounds of Christ. Your guilt has been baptismally buried. You are fed with the food of immortality. Satan cannot overcome you. Christ’s resurrection prevents it. Sin cannot enslave you. You live in Christ’s freedom. You are His bride and He will resurrect your spent and battle-ravaged body to be like His glorious body. How short the time really is until the fever of life will cease!
There was a little girl whose home was near the cemetery and in order to go to the local store she had to follow a path that lead through the cemetery along the graves. But she never seemed to have any sense of fear even when she returned at dusk. Someone asked her “Aren’t you afraid to walk through the cemetery alone and in the dark?” “Oh, no,” she replied, “My home is just beyond and the light is always on.”
The Scripture says we have no enduring city here4. Yet we need not fear for our home is just beyond the cemetery. There beams the brilliant countenance of Christ. The dawn of Easter will never fade. The Father spreads His canopy as an eternal fortress. The Holy Spirit permeates the heart of every saint. St. John, who beheld it most clearly recorded what he heard; “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”5 Thanks be to the risen Christ who reigns eternally. Amen.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
+ in nomine Jesu +
The Resurrection of our Lord
Easter Sunday
8 April, 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
2 Luke 20:38
3 John 8:11
4 See Hebrews 13:14
5 Revelation 21:3-4
6 See John 1:29
7 Job 19:25-26
Monday, April 9, 2012
Good Friday 2012
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 19:18
Theme: Crucified Not Simulated
Dear saints of the Crucified,
The passion of Christ was relentless at every level. His suffering was physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual. It was gut-wrenching, agonizing, torturous, and excruciating. The Jews blasphemed Him. The soldiers beat and mocked Him. Judas betrayed Him. Peter denied Him. Pilate abandoned Him. Finally, the heavenly Father turned away His divine gaze. In this abject loneliness He was swallowed by death. It was a foul scene.
For some time now our virtual images of death have been sanitized. Cartoon characters are slain repeatedly but re-appear later in the script no worse for the wear. Movie heroes are mortally wounded but return to live happily ever after. Gaming conquerors are assassinated continuously yet start afresh with the next contest. That doesn’t mean the death scenes often depicted in movies and high definition gaming aren’t excessively gruesome and brutal. The negative effects of exposure to such violence- even for the intent of entertainment – are increasingly well-documented. Yet certain fundamental aspects of reality are being omitted or misrepresented. The inescapable finality of death; the sense of injustice; the termination of any opportunity or hope of restoration; the numbing sense of loss; the complex range of human emotion- all these are circumvented or anaesthetized by carefully controlling the parameters.
Real death is the decisive illustration of complete loss of human control. It is the stunning consequence of separation from God. “When you eat of it you will surely die,”1 notified the Almighty to Adam whom He had made in His own image. Death is not natural. It was not that way from the beginning. There can be no agreement between philosophies which view death as a biological necessity in a cyclical universe and the Christian doctrine of immortality. The two teachings are diametrically opposed.
That doesn’t mean the world doesn’t have to deal with the consequences of decay. The world seeks to mitigate suffering, and litigate injustice. It hopes to improve and make the best of circumstances as they are. Christians too pursue these goals. But the motive and perspective are different. Unable to completely deny the immortality of the soul the world consigns such concerns to private interests, pacifying its collective conscience with a blatant universalism or unapologetic appeal to complete annihilation. Either the human soul must somehow-at death- pass on to greater vistas or be completely obliterated in every sense of the term. Pure skepticism compels one to believe that life simply ceases to exist. This is the necessary end game of the modern ‘triumph’ of reason. For the pure materialist there must be empirical evidence. Nothing else will suffice. Few indeed are any creedal affirmations of any existence resembling hell.
Perhaps the simulations of fatality that saturate our society are the result of a culture of death? There are certainly liabilities. Think of how the mind is conditioned by those characters that so easily return. The ease of it all deadens the conscience and defers the need for a real Saviour. There are many ‘revivals’, but NO resurrections; many ‘resuscitations’, but no actual re-creations. The ‘resuscitations’ are so commonplace so as to skew the mindset of whole societies and completely alter it for individuals. Death becomes a game- of sorts- perhaps the ultimate game, but an amusement, contest, and diversion nonetheless.
Reality is something different and more daunting. Death reeks. It takes no prisoners. The death of Christ was not virtual; it was vital. There was nothing sanitary about it. Yet through it the world was purged of sin. The body of Jesus- His humanity and divinity swallowed up the accumulated depravity and decay of the world. Like a black hole that pulls in everything near and compresses it into a dark abyss, the crucified Son of God was a magnet for my sins and yours, the greatest and the least, the darkest and the most exposed, every ungodly thought, word, and deed and the corruption of our fleshly inheritance. At the cross sinners have reason to hope. There the darkest of powers is being overthrown.
But to remember the crucifixion as a matter of curiosity or even respect is not yet to be transformed by it. “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 We often tolerate the Word but because our hearts are elsewhere we do not receive it. We honour it formally but reject it inwardly. St. Paul commended the Thessalonians, “We thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.”3 Unless the Holy Spirit transforms through this Word we are only attendees observing rituals.
Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”4 By this He meant not that we must atone for our own sins to enter heaven but that heaven is found in the sacrificial life of Him who triumphed on the cross. Our sinful nature is buried with Him in baptism. To live baptismally is to hunger ever more intensely for His righteousness while bearing the opposition and inconsistencies of the world. The world demands tangible evidence of Christ’s power; the Christian lives by faith not by sight.
It is said the measure of a person is how they handle adversity. Is it not the measure of Christians how they handle the prosperity of divine blessings which often appear to be burdens and sufferings to the world? When illness strikes there is suffering. When relationships fracture there is suffering. When grief is sprung upon us there is suffering. When dreams are shattered there is suffering. When our faith is ridiculed there is suffering. In suffering the Christian finds identity in Christ and solidarity in anguish. Yet not as a simulation or virtual reality but as the way of the cross; as the journey to our permanent dwelling. St. Paul writes, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body.”5Jesus’ body held the sins of the world. Your mortal frame holds the life of Jesus.
You cannot go back to the event of the cross, but the blessings of the crucifixion come to you in the body and blood of His sacred meal. This wellspring of life flows continuously at Christian altars fusing time and eternity. There was one death that mattered, one crucifixion that counted. It makes unnecessary any simulated or sanitized revivals to our current state of fallen-ness. It makes possible our true resurrection. Amen.
Good Friday
6 April, 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Genesis 2:17
2 1 Corinthians 1:18
3 1 Thessalonians 2:13
4 Mark 9:34
5 2 Corinthians 4:10-11
Text: John 19:18
Theme: Crucified Not Simulated
Dear saints of the Crucified,
The passion of Christ was relentless at every level. His suffering was physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual. It was gut-wrenching, agonizing, torturous, and excruciating. The Jews blasphemed Him. The soldiers beat and mocked Him. Judas betrayed Him. Peter denied Him. Pilate abandoned Him. Finally, the heavenly Father turned away His divine gaze. In this abject loneliness He was swallowed by death. It was a foul scene.
For some time now our virtual images of death have been sanitized. Cartoon characters are slain repeatedly but re-appear later in the script no worse for the wear. Movie heroes are mortally wounded but return to live happily ever after. Gaming conquerors are assassinated continuously yet start afresh with the next contest. That doesn’t mean the death scenes often depicted in movies and high definition gaming aren’t excessively gruesome and brutal. The negative effects of exposure to such violence- even for the intent of entertainment – are increasingly well-documented. Yet certain fundamental aspects of reality are being omitted or misrepresented. The inescapable finality of death; the sense of injustice; the termination of any opportunity or hope of restoration; the numbing sense of loss; the complex range of human emotion- all these are circumvented or anaesthetized by carefully controlling the parameters.
Real death is the decisive illustration of complete loss of human control. It is the stunning consequence of separation from God. “When you eat of it you will surely die,”1 notified the Almighty to Adam whom He had made in His own image. Death is not natural. It was not that way from the beginning. There can be no agreement between philosophies which view death as a biological necessity in a cyclical universe and the Christian doctrine of immortality. The two teachings are diametrically opposed.
That doesn’t mean the world doesn’t have to deal with the consequences of decay. The world seeks to mitigate suffering, and litigate injustice. It hopes to improve and make the best of circumstances as they are. Christians too pursue these goals. But the motive and perspective are different. Unable to completely deny the immortality of the soul the world consigns such concerns to private interests, pacifying its collective conscience with a blatant universalism or unapologetic appeal to complete annihilation. Either the human soul must somehow-at death- pass on to greater vistas or be completely obliterated in every sense of the term. Pure skepticism compels one to believe that life simply ceases to exist. This is the necessary end game of the modern ‘triumph’ of reason. For the pure materialist there must be empirical evidence. Nothing else will suffice. Few indeed are any creedal affirmations of any existence resembling hell.
Perhaps the simulations of fatality that saturate our society are the result of a culture of death? There are certainly liabilities. Think of how the mind is conditioned by those characters that so easily return. The ease of it all deadens the conscience and defers the need for a real Saviour. There are many ‘revivals’, but NO resurrections; many ‘resuscitations’, but no actual re-creations. The ‘resuscitations’ are so commonplace so as to skew the mindset of whole societies and completely alter it for individuals. Death becomes a game- of sorts- perhaps the ultimate game, but an amusement, contest, and diversion nonetheless.
Reality is something different and more daunting. Death reeks. It takes no prisoners. The death of Christ was not virtual; it was vital. There was nothing sanitary about it. Yet through it the world was purged of sin. The body of Jesus- His humanity and divinity swallowed up the accumulated depravity and decay of the world. Like a black hole that pulls in everything near and compresses it into a dark abyss, the crucified Son of God was a magnet for my sins and yours, the greatest and the least, the darkest and the most exposed, every ungodly thought, word, and deed and the corruption of our fleshly inheritance. At the cross sinners have reason to hope. There the darkest of powers is being overthrown.
But to remember the crucifixion as a matter of curiosity or even respect is not yet to be transformed by it. “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 We often tolerate the Word but because our hearts are elsewhere we do not receive it. We honour it formally but reject it inwardly. St. Paul commended the Thessalonians, “We thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.”3 Unless the Holy Spirit transforms through this Word we are only attendees observing rituals.
Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”4 By this He meant not that we must atone for our own sins to enter heaven but that heaven is found in the sacrificial life of Him who triumphed on the cross. Our sinful nature is buried with Him in baptism. To live baptismally is to hunger ever more intensely for His righteousness while bearing the opposition and inconsistencies of the world. The world demands tangible evidence of Christ’s power; the Christian lives by faith not by sight.
It is said the measure of a person is how they handle adversity. Is it not the measure of Christians how they handle the prosperity of divine blessings which often appear to be burdens and sufferings to the world? When illness strikes there is suffering. When relationships fracture there is suffering. When grief is sprung upon us there is suffering. When dreams are shattered there is suffering. When our faith is ridiculed there is suffering. In suffering the Christian finds identity in Christ and solidarity in anguish. Yet not as a simulation or virtual reality but as the way of the cross; as the journey to our permanent dwelling. St. Paul writes, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body.”5Jesus’ body held the sins of the world. Your mortal frame holds the life of Jesus.
You cannot go back to the event of the cross, but the blessings of the crucifixion come to you in the body and blood of His sacred meal. This wellspring of life flows continuously at Christian altars fusing time and eternity. There was one death that mattered, one crucifixion that counted. It makes unnecessary any simulated or sanitized revivals to our current state of fallen-ness. It makes possible our true resurrection. Amen.
Good Friday
6 April, 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Genesis 2:17
2 1 Corinthians 1:18
3 1 Thessalonians 2:13
4 Mark 9:34
5 2 Corinthians 4:10-11
Friday, April 6, 2012
Maundy Thursday 2012
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Theme: Sacred Sustenance
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
There are no coincidences with God. The idea of coincidence as a surprise synchronization of seemingly unrelated events simply reveals human inability to see the whole picture. God doesn’t suffer from such limitations. What happens for us sequentially can happen for Him simultaneously. We are subject to chronology. He enjoys the freedom of eternity. But we should not conclude therefore that God is aloof. He does not confine Himself to some parallel universe. And we should not reason that because there are no coincidences for God we governed by some fatalistic determinism. God has not abandoned us to chaotic and unpredictable forces.
But apart from His mercy what we are ruled by is sin, decay, and death. When we abandon God we are exposed to wickedness. We are easy prey for Satan. The Holy Spirit allows this so that He may convict the heart of selfishness, arrogance, and unbelief. As we commence this sequence of holy days let us remember our own sin is a sickness unto death. Let us with new resolve come with penitent hearts and humble minds.
Dear friends, Jesus was not given to novelty. In the Divine equation the shedding of blood equals forgiveness. So the timing of Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper was not happenstance. He was observing the annual Passover celebration with His disciples. Year after year, century after century the Passover lamb was consumed in remembrance of God’s deliverance from slavery. The lamb’s blood gave protection from the avenging angel and its meat nourished God’s people. God ratified His covenant with blood. Now Jesus would execute the new covenant.
He memorialized His death by giving the first portion of the divine inheritance. Jesus said, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”1 In doing so He declared an end to all blood-letting. He announced that the sacrificial system was now obsolete. The Bible tells us that at the dedication of the temple alone Solomon sacrificed twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats2. Innumerable are the sacrifices that happened over the centuries. All of those were superseded by the one sacrifice of Christ.
The Scripture says, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.”3 “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.4
It is this very life-giving blood that is offered to you. Though the world mock it, the unbeliever despise it, and the skeptic shun it; is to the Christian the most sacred participation available to us in this life. Holy Communion is tied intentionally and inseparably to the forgiveness of sins. It is a means of grace. And it is the means of grace that most closely connects the believer to His suffering and bloody sacrifice on the cross.
Baptism is incorporation into Christ’s death and resurrection. As such it involves a transfer from Satan’s dominion to Christ’s kingdom. The Lord’s Supper then sustains life in that kingdom by continually gifting the believer with the favour won by His sacrifice. It involves a tangible affirmation of God’s reconciliation in Christ. Humans have a limited capacity for love. The inclination to forgive is not a natural human tendency. But Christ is an endless reservoir of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Forgiveness is the power and fruit of the crucifixion.
It is not a private treasure but the currency of exchange among us. Circumcision marked reception into the Israelite community. Membership in the community qualified one to participate in the Passover. Baptism marks reception into the Trinitarian community. Membership in the community qualifies one to share in the Eucharistic feast. The parallels are intentional and the latter supersedes the former. But everything happens in its appropriate time. Participation in Holy Communion involves a public confession of truth. Not all are yet ready to confess. Not all are yet ready to participate. The Holy Spirit must mature us so that our faith is child-like but not childish.
Gathered there, in that Upper Room were twelve disciples- soon minus one. How does the Saviour model for them not only their ministry but their mindset, their ‘heartset’ toward every human being? The task of the one in lowest position is undertaken; He bends to bathe their soiled feet. The Immortal One who condescended in His Deity now stoops in His humanity. The Redeemer who lifts sinners from death and decay bows down in humility. He who is alone to be worshipped kneels to serve. Their King is now their domestic; their Lord acting as their slave. Here He shows them in modesty what it means to be robed with His majesty. His splendor is expressed in simplicity.
Uncertain and soon to forsake their Lord they would nevertheless carry His light into a dark and pagan world. All but one would be martyred for the cause. Through the Holy Spirit the apostles began a transformation of the world. But it wasn’t achieved by first acquiring status or capital with the world. God doesn’t require showy things of you either. He requires humble things. He doesn’t demand pretentiousness but godliness. He seeks not a flashy Christian appearance, but an honest and respectful demeanor. He asks you to reverence Him through service to your neighbour. He wants you to walk in step with the Spirit and not be controlled by the pace of the world. He knows when you are tempted by fads so He has given you the permanence of His truth. He knows when you are lacking self-worth so He has honoured you with the bestowal of His name. He knows when you are plagued with self-doubt so He has supplied you with the merit of His Son.
Just as Jesus’ self-giving of His own life in the Sacrament of the Altar was not based on novelty, so too His fulfillment of redemption. The world needs salvation not innovation. Christ did not come to design a new strategy for an old problem; the conquering of sin doesn’t necessitate invention. He came to offer the only solution, the one planned and purposed from the beginning. He came to re-invest life with immortality. He came to restore the image of God to humanity. He is the new Adam, the firstborn from the dead, the Resurrection and the Life. He is your Sovereign. You are safe in His care. That promise is sealed in blood. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Maundy Thursday
5 April 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Matthew 26:28
2 See 2 Chronicles 7:5
3 Hebrews 10:11-12
4 Hebrews 8:12
Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Theme: Sacred Sustenance
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
There are no coincidences with God. The idea of coincidence as a surprise synchronization of seemingly unrelated events simply reveals human inability to see the whole picture. God doesn’t suffer from such limitations. What happens for us sequentially can happen for Him simultaneously. We are subject to chronology. He enjoys the freedom of eternity. But we should not conclude therefore that God is aloof. He does not confine Himself to some parallel universe. And we should not reason that because there are no coincidences for God we governed by some fatalistic determinism. God has not abandoned us to chaotic and unpredictable forces.
But apart from His mercy what we are ruled by is sin, decay, and death. When we abandon God we are exposed to wickedness. We are easy prey for Satan. The Holy Spirit allows this so that He may convict the heart of selfishness, arrogance, and unbelief. As we commence this sequence of holy days let us remember our own sin is a sickness unto death. Let us with new resolve come with penitent hearts and humble minds.
Dear friends, Jesus was not given to novelty. In the Divine equation the shedding of blood equals forgiveness. So the timing of Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper was not happenstance. He was observing the annual Passover celebration with His disciples. Year after year, century after century the Passover lamb was consumed in remembrance of God’s deliverance from slavery. The lamb’s blood gave protection from the avenging angel and its meat nourished God’s people. God ratified His covenant with blood. Now Jesus would execute the new covenant.
He memorialized His death by giving the first portion of the divine inheritance. Jesus said, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”1 In doing so He declared an end to all blood-letting. He announced that the sacrificial system was now obsolete. The Bible tells us that at the dedication of the temple alone Solomon sacrificed twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats2. Innumerable are the sacrifices that happened over the centuries. All of those were superseded by the one sacrifice of Christ.
The Scripture says, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.”3 “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.4
It is this very life-giving blood that is offered to you. Though the world mock it, the unbeliever despise it, and the skeptic shun it; is to the Christian the most sacred participation available to us in this life. Holy Communion is tied intentionally and inseparably to the forgiveness of sins. It is a means of grace. And it is the means of grace that most closely connects the believer to His suffering and bloody sacrifice on the cross.
Baptism is incorporation into Christ’s death and resurrection. As such it involves a transfer from Satan’s dominion to Christ’s kingdom. The Lord’s Supper then sustains life in that kingdom by continually gifting the believer with the favour won by His sacrifice. It involves a tangible affirmation of God’s reconciliation in Christ. Humans have a limited capacity for love. The inclination to forgive is not a natural human tendency. But Christ is an endless reservoir of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Forgiveness is the power and fruit of the crucifixion.
It is not a private treasure but the currency of exchange among us. Circumcision marked reception into the Israelite community. Membership in the community qualified one to participate in the Passover. Baptism marks reception into the Trinitarian community. Membership in the community qualifies one to share in the Eucharistic feast. The parallels are intentional and the latter supersedes the former. But everything happens in its appropriate time. Participation in Holy Communion involves a public confession of truth. Not all are yet ready to confess. Not all are yet ready to participate. The Holy Spirit must mature us so that our faith is child-like but not childish.
Gathered there, in that Upper Room were twelve disciples- soon minus one. How does the Saviour model for them not only their ministry but their mindset, their ‘heartset’ toward every human being? The task of the one in lowest position is undertaken; He bends to bathe their soiled feet. The Immortal One who condescended in His Deity now stoops in His humanity. The Redeemer who lifts sinners from death and decay bows down in humility. He who is alone to be worshipped kneels to serve. Their King is now their domestic; their Lord acting as their slave. Here He shows them in modesty what it means to be robed with His majesty. His splendor is expressed in simplicity.
Uncertain and soon to forsake their Lord they would nevertheless carry His light into a dark and pagan world. All but one would be martyred for the cause. Through the Holy Spirit the apostles began a transformation of the world. But it wasn’t achieved by first acquiring status or capital with the world. God doesn’t require showy things of you either. He requires humble things. He doesn’t demand pretentiousness but godliness. He seeks not a flashy Christian appearance, but an honest and respectful demeanor. He asks you to reverence Him through service to your neighbour. He wants you to walk in step with the Spirit and not be controlled by the pace of the world. He knows when you are tempted by fads so He has given you the permanence of His truth. He knows when you are lacking self-worth so He has honoured you with the bestowal of His name. He knows when you are plagued with self-doubt so He has supplied you with the merit of His Son.
Just as Jesus’ self-giving of His own life in the Sacrament of the Altar was not based on novelty, so too His fulfillment of redemption. The world needs salvation not innovation. Christ did not come to design a new strategy for an old problem; the conquering of sin doesn’t necessitate invention. He came to offer the only solution, the one planned and purposed from the beginning. He came to re-invest life with immortality. He came to restore the image of God to humanity. He is the new Adam, the firstborn from the dead, the Resurrection and the Life. He is your Sovereign. You are safe in His care. That promise is sealed in blood. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Maundy Thursday
5 April 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Matthew 26:28
2 See 2 Chronicles 7:5
3 Hebrews 10:11-12
4 Hebrews 8:12
Monday, April 2, 2012
Palm Sunday (from 2005)
THERE IS NO NEW SERMON DUE TO THE PALM SUNDAY RETREAT. I AM POSTING THE 2005 PALM SUNDAY SERMON.
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: Matthew 27:11-54
Theme: Where Time and Eternity Meet
Dear Followers to Calvary,
People often reflect upon the past with a combination of sentimental fondness and regret. They often understand the present as something to simply get through, something to survive. And they often face the future with a certain amount of anxiety and fear. These tendencies are to a significant degree the result of the frailty of humanity and the uncertainty associated with it. As Christians, we have both the challenge and privilege of understanding the past, present and future in relation to Christ. God is eternal. He dwells outside of time. He transcends time. Christ, as God, does too. But Christ, as the one who has also taken on human flesh and lived in historical time, merges and integrates time and eternity. On this Palm Sunday, our focus is not so much to be drawn back in time to the events of those days, as it is to understand how those events are part of present and future reality. The death of Jesus Christ was an historical event. But the meaning and power of it are an eternal present. His death and resurrection are not merely events that continue to shock, interest or inspire people. They are events that continue to give life to the dead.
So how, in the context of the Passion of Jesus Christ, can we understand the past, present and future? We do well to begin by remembering the Scripture that says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”1 Yesterday, the past; people do tend to be forgiving towards the past because there is truth in the phrase, “time heals all wounds.” Yet we still harbor anger and regrets that can fester and cripple us. As Christians, we need not merely cope with the problems of the past by hoping time will erase our memories. We can truly forgive and make a new start. We can express sorrow, but take confidence that Christ resolves even things we no longer have opportunity to address. The past must always serve as a mirror. Whether regarding what God has done or what we have done or failed to do, the past is for our learning. We learn the dynamics and consequences of sin so that we are warned not to repeat. The Scripture says regarding such things, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.”2 We also learn from the past of the abiding grace and mercy of God towards His people. At His trial and crucifixion, the Palm Sunday shouts of “Hosanna!” were but a distant memory. Jesus Christ has reconciled the past for us. It is not our place to live in it, or relive it, but learn from it.
Concern with the present is what consumes us on a regular basis. The pressures of daily existence, of making ends meet tend to put us in survival mode. In survival mode we are less likely to learn from the past or consider wisely the future. We can become so wrapped up in the present that it controls us. We find ourselves just trying to get through the next day. It is both a delight of Satan and a craving of our sinful natures to be enslaved to our present needs and desires. But the believer lives continuously, lives presently in a state of grace. Not only was God with us in the past, not only will He be with us in the future, He is with us now. God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is not with us as a remote observer. He is with us in His full power to intercede, to create, to destroy, to sustain, to comfort. What is remarkable about this is that God actively and dynamically dwells with sinners; yet only in and through and because of Christ. Because the Father forsook His Son, we are never forsaken as His children. On the cross Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”3
So that He could say to His disciples, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”4 Christians are not in bondage to the fallen creation, they are free to serve the Creator.
The pressures to live in the present are often matched by anxieties about the future? What if this happens? What if that happens? Will I be protected from this or prepared for that? These common questions must be left to the care and wisdom of God. Worry is a sin because it betrays a lack of confidence in the Almighty. Jesus says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear……For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”5 And the apostle says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”6 Christ has laid out the future and He will not fail to bring us safely into it.
Dear friends, as a believer, it is a profound privilege that you live your life in time under the auspices of eternity. Time and eternity are not really comparable. Time is of the finite creation. It will cease. Eternity is undiminished fellowship with the triune God. We are creatures that are elevated to share with the Creator because sin is vanquished. We are time-bound beings freed for eternity. That is the import of everything Christ came to do. It is the meaning of today’s Scripture, “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life….When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely He was the Son of God.”7 He was and is the crucified, risen and living Lord for all eternity. At the crucifixion of Jesus Christ the dimension of time was reconciled with eternity. The entire created sphere was reconciled with the eternal realm. And regardless of how many days this earth will exist, the crucifixion will always remain the portal to eternity. And this portal is opened wherever and whenever the gospel reaches and changes the heart, wherever and whenever the forgiveness of sins is received in true faith, wherever and whenever the Holy Spirit works through baptismal water, wherever and whenever the body and blood of Christ is received in humble trust. For in all these things, but in these things alone do we receive Christ alone for our timeless salvation.
Indeed, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”8 He is the crucified and living one. Therefore when St. John looks into heaven, he sees this profound and magnificent sight, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.”9 Let us raise our hosannas on this Palm Sunday, for He has put to death our sins for eternity.
Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +
Palm Sunday
Sunday of the Passion
March 20, 2005
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Hebrews 13:8
2 1 Corinthians 10:11
3 Matthew 27:46
4 Matthew 28:20
5 Matthew 6:25-32
6 Philippians 4:6-7
7 Matthew 27:50-52, 54
8 Hebrews 13:8
9 Revelation 5:6
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: Matthew 27:11-54
Theme: Where Time and Eternity Meet
Dear Followers to Calvary,
People often reflect upon the past with a combination of sentimental fondness and regret. They often understand the present as something to simply get through, something to survive. And they often face the future with a certain amount of anxiety and fear. These tendencies are to a significant degree the result of the frailty of humanity and the uncertainty associated with it. As Christians, we have both the challenge and privilege of understanding the past, present and future in relation to Christ. God is eternal. He dwells outside of time. He transcends time. Christ, as God, does too. But Christ, as the one who has also taken on human flesh and lived in historical time, merges and integrates time and eternity. On this Palm Sunday, our focus is not so much to be drawn back in time to the events of those days, as it is to understand how those events are part of present and future reality. The death of Jesus Christ was an historical event. But the meaning and power of it are an eternal present. His death and resurrection are not merely events that continue to shock, interest or inspire people. They are events that continue to give life to the dead.
So how, in the context of the Passion of Jesus Christ, can we understand the past, present and future? We do well to begin by remembering the Scripture that says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”1 Yesterday, the past; people do tend to be forgiving towards the past because there is truth in the phrase, “time heals all wounds.” Yet we still harbor anger and regrets that can fester and cripple us. As Christians, we need not merely cope with the problems of the past by hoping time will erase our memories. We can truly forgive and make a new start. We can express sorrow, but take confidence that Christ resolves even things we no longer have opportunity to address. The past must always serve as a mirror. Whether regarding what God has done or what we have done or failed to do, the past is for our learning. We learn the dynamics and consequences of sin so that we are warned not to repeat. The Scripture says regarding such things, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.”2 We also learn from the past of the abiding grace and mercy of God towards His people. At His trial and crucifixion, the Palm Sunday shouts of “Hosanna!” were but a distant memory. Jesus Christ has reconciled the past for us. It is not our place to live in it, or relive it, but learn from it.
Concern with the present is what consumes us on a regular basis. The pressures of daily existence, of making ends meet tend to put us in survival mode. In survival mode we are less likely to learn from the past or consider wisely the future. We can become so wrapped up in the present that it controls us. We find ourselves just trying to get through the next day. It is both a delight of Satan and a craving of our sinful natures to be enslaved to our present needs and desires. But the believer lives continuously, lives presently in a state of grace. Not only was God with us in the past, not only will He be with us in the future, He is with us now. God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is not with us as a remote observer. He is with us in His full power to intercede, to create, to destroy, to sustain, to comfort. What is remarkable about this is that God actively and dynamically dwells with sinners; yet only in and through and because of Christ. Because the Father forsook His Son, we are never forsaken as His children. On the cross Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”3
So that He could say to His disciples, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”4 Christians are not in bondage to the fallen creation, they are free to serve the Creator.
The pressures to live in the present are often matched by anxieties about the future? What if this happens? What if that happens? Will I be protected from this or prepared for that? These common questions must be left to the care and wisdom of God. Worry is a sin because it betrays a lack of confidence in the Almighty. Jesus says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear……For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”5 And the apostle says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”6 Christ has laid out the future and He will not fail to bring us safely into it.
Dear friends, as a believer, it is a profound privilege that you live your life in time under the auspices of eternity. Time and eternity are not really comparable. Time is of the finite creation. It will cease. Eternity is undiminished fellowship with the triune God. We are creatures that are elevated to share with the Creator because sin is vanquished. We are time-bound beings freed for eternity. That is the import of everything Christ came to do. It is the meaning of today’s Scripture, “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life….When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely He was the Son of God.”7 He was and is the crucified, risen and living Lord for all eternity. At the crucifixion of Jesus Christ the dimension of time was reconciled with eternity. The entire created sphere was reconciled with the eternal realm. And regardless of how many days this earth will exist, the crucifixion will always remain the portal to eternity. And this portal is opened wherever and whenever the gospel reaches and changes the heart, wherever and whenever the forgiveness of sins is received in true faith, wherever and whenever the Holy Spirit works through baptismal water, wherever and whenever the body and blood of Christ is received in humble trust. For in all these things, but in these things alone do we receive Christ alone for our timeless salvation.
Indeed, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”8 He is the crucified and living one. Therefore when St. John looks into heaven, he sees this profound and magnificent sight, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.”9 Let us raise our hosannas on this Palm Sunday, for He has put to death our sins for eternity.
Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +
Palm Sunday
Sunday of the Passion
March 20, 2005
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Hebrews 13:8
2 1 Corinthians 10:11
3 Matthew 27:46
4 Matthew 28:20
5 Matthew 6:25-32
6 Philippians 4:6-7
7 Matthew 27:50-52, 54
8 Hebrews 13:8
9 Revelation 5:6
Monday, March 26, 2012
Fifth Sunday In Lent (B) 2012
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 12:21
Theme: A Visual On Jesus
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Seeing is believing.…well, maybe not quite. Even with modern visual communication technology- TV, satellite, Skype- it is still common that people like to see famous people in person. People still flock to concerts and sporting events. Performing arts teams still travel the world. Political candidates venture across their electorates. Even Facebook and Twitter have not been able to completely smother the need for personal interaction. There is still something critical about meeting someone in person. These Greeks who came up to celebrate the Passover Feast in Jerusalem had a simple request: “Sir…we would like to see Jesus.”1
Undoubtedly news had reached them. We are told His fame had spread far and wide. We can guess their desire was more than just a casual request. Perhaps they had some question to raise, issue to discuss, or just wanted to see Him for themselves. About their background or status we know nothing. Yet their request expresses an age-old yearning: To meet God in the flesh. Even Herod longed to see Jesus in person.
Interestingly both the desire to see God and the reluctance to meet Him can be expressions of our sinfulness. The skeptic may desire to see God -or at least some impressive sign- as evidence of His existence. Christians too are often tempted to want proof. Faith takes God at His word. Sin looks to have its own criteria satisfied. The unbeliever may not be reluctant to meet God because he or she doesn’t think it will ever happen. But people of such firm ‘conviction’ are few and far between. For most, the encounter lingers in the background but is ignored or repressed as people go about their busy lives. Christians may be reluctant to meet God because of the fear of judgment. But more commonly we’d just rather keep God at a distance while still receiving His blessings. We know that to meet God in His unveiled glory means an end to our current life. If truth be told our desire to embrace the experiences of this life is often stronger than our love for eternity. For such self-centeredness we are continually called to repent.
What would it have been like to meet Jesus in the flesh? Did Jesus have an aura about Him as He walked the earth? His words certainly commanded attention and respect. They bestowed comfort, invoked consternation and incited confrontation. The Pharisee, the pauper, and the penitent alike hung on His words. His teachings were misinterpreted, misrepresented, and misappropriated. But His appearance…? He gave pardon to the guilty; hope to the despairing; food to the hungry; strength to the weak; joy to the sorrowful; life to the dying- but not by the force of His human stature. He drove off demons and drew in doubtfuls. He walked on waves and reclined with sinners. But was He a character whose persona was ‘bigger than life’?
Not if the Scriptures are to be believed. In Him God was disguised in human flesh in the most humble of appearances. The Scripture says, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.”2 He is God where we’d least expect Him: Dying on a cross. He took the form of a servant3, bore the insults of a rebel4, and had no place to lay His head5. He was transfigured privately but crucified publicly. Previously accused of demon possession but later mistaken as a gardener He could not visibly be ascertained to be the Almighty One. After His resurrection the disciples did not even recognize Him. He already had His glorified body.
The incarnation changed the manner of contact God had with His people. This truth has many implications. This Fifth Sunday on Lent is also the date for the Annunciation of our Lord. The angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary to announce she would be the mother of the Messiah. Today is 9 months before the celebration of Christmas. It is increasingly important to recognize the conception of Jesus. Not because we want an early start to Christmas, but because our society is increasingly undermining the protection of life when it is most vulnerable.
The most important theological argument against the practice of abortion is the conception of Jesus Christ. The church throughout the centuries has confessed to believe “In Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…”6 God sanctified human conception and birth by sending His Son to assume human flesh through these ‘ordinary’ means. In conception the divine power of God is demonstrated. His alone is the power to give life. Regardless of the ‘advances’ of technology to manipulate the materials, life is and will always remain a mysterious miracle. You can bring together all the components and circumstances, but to take credit for the leap from inert material to a living organism is a dangerous arrogance. No one can call forth life, save God alone. We are commanded to love our neighbours as ourselves. Consider that the unborn are your most vulnerable neighbours.
Christ also died for the unborn. In His response today Jesus said, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”7 The one Seed had to be sacrificed for the others. To say that the death of Jesus Christ was inevitable must be clarified by saying that it was necessary in order for salvation to be achieved. It was the Father’s will but also the voluntary submission of Jesus that led to His crucifixion. In the immediate human context wicked religious rulers sought vengeance and neither Roman authorities nor the common person intervened to stop it. In the greater context of humanity sin had to be atoned for lest the justice of God be trivialized. None of these causes excludes the others. Christ died and rose again to bestow forgiveness, life and salvation.
So where do we ‘find’ God today? God’s omnipresence does not preclude His self-determined localization. That God, and so Christ, can be present everywhere- even in hell- by His divine power does not supersede the fact that He wills to be present in His particular means of grace: absolution, baptism, and Holy Communion. The general attributes of the Deity do not excel His specific points of access. The Israelites were not to make sacrifices on every high hill and under every spreading tree, but only where God had placed His Name; in the tabernacle and temple. He now resides among us where His Name dwells- in and through the One who bears that Name- Immanuel, God-with-us. Where Christ is the Holy Spirit gathers followers-His church.
You are not here by convenience. You are not even here by your own choice as the fundamental cause. You are here because God has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.8 You are here because God gathers people into community to forgive, encourage, and strengthen them. No Christian is a lone-ranger. A Christian without a church is like a soldier without an army; a player without a team; a citizen without a country. Here among the body of Christ you have the presence of Christ. Christ is present through His means. The Holy Spirit effects it through His word. God is not found where we wish Him to be in our mental images or vivid emotions. He is found where His servants stand in His stead, His promise is pronounced, and His people participate in His holy things. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Annunciation of our Lord
25 March 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 12:21
2 Isaiah 53:2-3
3 See Philippians 1:27
4 See Luke 23:13
5 See Matthew 8:20
6 The Apostles’ Creed
7 John 12:24
8 See 1 Peter 2:9
Text: John 12:21
Theme: A Visual On Jesus
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Seeing is believing.…well, maybe not quite. Even with modern visual communication technology- TV, satellite, Skype- it is still common that people like to see famous people in person. People still flock to concerts and sporting events. Performing arts teams still travel the world. Political candidates venture across their electorates. Even Facebook and Twitter have not been able to completely smother the need for personal interaction. There is still something critical about meeting someone in person. These Greeks who came up to celebrate the Passover Feast in Jerusalem had a simple request: “Sir…we would like to see Jesus.”1
Undoubtedly news had reached them. We are told His fame had spread far and wide. We can guess their desire was more than just a casual request. Perhaps they had some question to raise, issue to discuss, or just wanted to see Him for themselves. About their background or status we know nothing. Yet their request expresses an age-old yearning: To meet God in the flesh. Even Herod longed to see Jesus in person.
Interestingly both the desire to see God and the reluctance to meet Him can be expressions of our sinfulness. The skeptic may desire to see God -or at least some impressive sign- as evidence of His existence. Christians too are often tempted to want proof. Faith takes God at His word. Sin looks to have its own criteria satisfied. The unbeliever may not be reluctant to meet God because he or she doesn’t think it will ever happen. But people of such firm ‘conviction’ are few and far between. For most, the encounter lingers in the background but is ignored or repressed as people go about their busy lives. Christians may be reluctant to meet God because of the fear of judgment. But more commonly we’d just rather keep God at a distance while still receiving His blessings. We know that to meet God in His unveiled glory means an end to our current life. If truth be told our desire to embrace the experiences of this life is often stronger than our love for eternity. For such self-centeredness we are continually called to repent.
What would it have been like to meet Jesus in the flesh? Did Jesus have an aura about Him as He walked the earth? His words certainly commanded attention and respect. They bestowed comfort, invoked consternation and incited confrontation. The Pharisee, the pauper, and the penitent alike hung on His words. His teachings were misinterpreted, misrepresented, and misappropriated. But His appearance…? He gave pardon to the guilty; hope to the despairing; food to the hungry; strength to the weak; joy to the sorrowful; life to the dying- but not by the force of His human stature. He drove off demons and drew in doubtfuls. He walked on waves and reclined with sinners. But was He a character whose persona was ‘bigger than life’?
Not if the Scriptures are to be believed. In Him God was disguised in human flesh in the most humble of appearances. The Scripture says, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.”2 He is God where we’d least expect Him: Dying on a cross. He took the form of a servant3, bore the insults of a rebel4, and had no place to lay His head5. He was transfigured privately but crucified publicly. Previously accused of demon possession but later mistaken as a gardener He could not visibly be ascertained to be the Almighty One. After His resurrection the disciples did not even recognize Him. He already had His glorified body.
The incarnation changed the manner of contact God had with His people. This truth has many implications. This Fifth Sunday on Lent is also the date for the Annunciation of our Lord. The angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary to announce she would be the mother of the Messiah. Today is 9 months before the celebration of Christmas. It is increasingly important to recognize the conception of Jesus. Not because we want an early start to Christmas, but because our society is increasingly undermining the protection of life when it is most vulnerable.
The most important theological argument against the practice of abortion is the conception of Jesus Christ. The church throughout the centuries has confessed to believe “In Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…”6 God sanctified human conception and birth by sending His Son to assume human flesh through these ‘ordinary’ means. In conception the divine power of God is demonstrated. His alone is the power to give life. Regardless of the ‘advances’ of technology to manipulate the materials, life is and will always remain a mysterious miracle. You can bring together all the components and circumstances, but to take credit for the leap from inert material to a living organism is a dangerous arrogance. No one can call forth life, save God alone. We are commanded to love our neighbours as ourselves. Consider that the unborn are your most vulnerable neighbours.
Christ also died for the unborn. In His response today Jesus said, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”7 The one Seed had to be sacrificed for the others. To say that the death of Jesus Christ was inevitable must be clarified by saying that it was necessary in order for salvation to be achieved. It was the Father’s will but also the voluntary submission of Jesus that led to His crucifixion. In the immediate human context wicked religious rulers sought vengeance and neither Roman authorities nor the common person intervened to stop it. In the greater context of humanity sin had to be atoned for lest the justice of God be trivialized. None of these causes excludes the others. Christ died and rose again to bestow forgiveness, life and salvation.
So where do we ‘find’ God today? God’s omnipresence does not preclude His self-determined localization. That God, and so Christ, can be present everywhere- even in hell- by His divine power does not supersede the fact that He wills to be present in His particular means of grace: absolution, baptism, and Holy Communion. The general attributes of the Deity do not excel His specific points of access. The Israelites were not to make sacrifices on every high hill and under every spreading tree, but only where God had placed His Name; in the tabernacle and temple. He now resides among us where His Name dwells- in and through the One who bears that Name- Immanuel, God-with-us. Where Christ is the Holy Spirit gathers followers-His church.
You are not here by convenience. You are not even here by your own choice as the fundamental cause. You are here because God has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.8 You are here because God gathers people into community to forgive, encourage, and strengthen them. No Christian is a lone-ranger. A Christian without a church is like a soldier without an army; a player without a team; a citizen without a country. Here among the body of Christ you have the presence of Christ. Christ is present through His means. The Holy Spirit effects it through His word. God is not found where we wish Him to be in our mental images or vivid emotions. He is found where His servants stand in His stead, His promise is pronounced, and His people participate in His holy things. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Annunciation of our Lord
25 March 2012
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 12:21
2 Isaiah 53:2-3
3 See Philippians 1:27
4 See Luke 23:13
5 See Matthew 8:20
6 The Apostles’ Creed
7 John 12:24
8 See 1 Peter 2:9
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