+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: John 13:34
Theme: “As I Have Loved You”
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
People want results. This is true for believers and unbelievers alike. Christians learn to understand (and appreciate) that many of the results they seek are delayed until the time of the new creation. Unbelievers are likely to scoff at the wisdom of such thinking. Consequently Christians always feel themselves under the burden of proving the integrity of God’s activity. Jesus says today, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”1 Of course humanists can “love” others too. They can also be very moral. But they do not understand unbelief as sin. And they do not see the Christian faith as any help in addressing their deepest concerns. How does the believer respond?
Trite platitudes about God giving meaning to life will hardly satisfy those who search for answers to the deepest questions, or those encumbered by darkness, doubt, and despair. God must be confessed as He is and for what He wills. The truth can never be spoken too plainly, too explicitly, too clearly, or too often. But we can only confess God clearly if we know what He says about Himself. He is inescapably formidable but immeasurably gracious. He wills the destruction of evil and falsehood in all its forms and yet inexplicably forgives the penitent from the darkest sins. He dwells in self-created glory- the majesty of His own nature- yet He condescends to dwell with the lowly and undertakes to raise them to glory.
The seeker, or skeptic, or soul near despair who begins to be drawn into this biblical perspective- the person whom the Holy Spirit confronts with the holiness and compassion of the incarnate Christ- can be transformed only by this power. The Scripture says, “The word of God is living and active. Sharper then any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”2
A conversation once took place between a popular actor and an eminent preacher. The preacher queried the actor about what drew the crowds to see him. “Tell me the difference between us,” the preacher asked the actor. “Night after night your performance of fiction keeps drawing people. Meanwhile, I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth and hardly anyone seems interested at all.” The actor responded, “That is quite simple. I present my fiction as though it were truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction.” Surely, we have here a critique for modern Christianity. How easily does the church undermine its own mission by not giving a credible witness?
The last thing the church should do is send the message to unbelievers that Christians are guaranteed to have a more comfortable life in the here and now. In fact, life as a believer often becomes a lot more difficult. Satan puts in extra effort to sidetrack Christians. The best thing for a person’ spiritual well-being at any particular time might well be the withdrawal or denial of material blessings. God desires that we find comfort and satisfaction in Him. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments relate to contentment. Contentment is a divine gift (as a fruit of faith) and a perspective on meaning that Christians should always seek to cultivate.
Jesus’ command to love raises again the importance of understanding the distinction between faith and its fruit, named generally, love. Is the grace of God best assessed by anecdotal evidence? That is, should the blessings in your life be used as evidence to convince skeptics that God is merciful? The proposition is problematic at best. For every case of health and happiness there is a case of sickness and sorrow. Do these cases prove the absence of God’s blessings? For every claim of answered prayer there is the claim that prayer fell on deaf ears. Of course many of God’s blessings are directly tangible and to be upheld as evidence of His love and provision. But they are never to be considered indisputable proof of God’s favour. Lack of personal comforts can never be equated with apathy or neglect on the part of God. The gospel never depends on the measurable quotas of human expectation.
Faith finally rests on the ‘naked’ promise of God’s Word. This where trust is really tested and refined. All the circumstantial evidence must be shut out. The only evidence that finally matters is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the declaration that He has made the sacrifice for the sins of the world. The moment we attempt to decipher the intention or commitment of God based on personal circumstances of comfort or struggle we depart from the fundamental truth of how God is known. Remember what the Scripture says about God’s people under the old covenant, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.”3
God promises the baptized an eternal inheritance. The relative prosperity or poverty of your earthly circumstances cannot alter that. The certainty of God’s will is revealed in His Word. “God our Saviour…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”4 Cling to that promise. You are no exception. The Apostle Peter says, “In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”5 The crucifixion wasn’t a general historic event. Christ was hung on the cross for you and for your salvation.
The validity of your faith does not depend on the ever changing nature of human emotion. God is reliable. Consider worship and communion. When you approach the altar don’t concern yourself with whether you’ll feel elevated to God when you take communion. Don’t fret about whether you’ll really feel drawn closer to Him; take God at His word. In the sacrament He forgives you. Christ is there. And it is important to know why He is there. He is there because He has made that promise. He is there whether the skeptic approaches to challenge Him, the unbeliever approaches to mock Him, or the faithful approach to revere Him and receive His gifts. The first two elicit judgment, the last blessing; but none negate His presence or invalidate His promise.
God calls us to love. Christians love others not by ignoring or overlooking sin and falsehood but by being willing to persevere with kindness and compassion. We adhere to God’s promise that to follow the truth is always and only the proper way to love. Here lies a great temptation and deception. It is the pressure to tolerate or even condone that which is contrary to God’s will for the so-called “sake of love”. But true love always seeks the ultimate well-being of another in body and soul. To love even in the face of resistance, resentment, and rejection is to practice love driven by Christ’s steadfast compassion. Christians can love even their enemies for the sake of the greater purpose of God’s kingdom.
Christ alone is the perfect image of divine love. Even if a person never in his life properly experienced Christian love- Christ’s compassion would be no less certain. Faith will experience its reward. Its hope will be realized. We are directed to the fulfillment again today. “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.”6 May God make it so according to His good pleasure. Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +
Fifth Sunday of Easter
2 May 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 13:35
2 Hebrews 4:12 3 Hebrews 11:13
4 1 Timothy 2:3-4 5 1 Peter 1:3 6 Revelation 21:3-4
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Fourth Sunday of Easter
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: John 10:22-30
Theme: The Shepherd and His Sheep
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
God is found in the midst of struggle. More specifically, God enables us to recognise Him most clearly in the midst of trial. Faith is conceived in the conflict between accepting who we really are and trusting Christ as He truly is. It is the battle between clinging to the illusion of self-reliance and coming to terms with our dependency on God. The very meaning of life is tied up with the nature of our dependence on God. The person who thinks they possess a God who grants unlimited freedom for self-determination possesses only a construction of his own imagination. At the hour of death, if not before, it will all come crashing down. It is the very lie of Satan. But repentant sinners find in Christ a Saviour who, through His own suffering, binds their lives to His for eternity. This is true freedom.
The Bible depicts human nature as it really is, not as it only appears. We are born hopelessly self-centred and without true love or reverence for God. We are helpless to correct the situation or even recognise it on our own. The reality of sin, and all of its effects and consequences, can never be lost sight of without the risk of undermining the need for the gospel. The unbridled will is powerful. It relentlessly seeks to serve its own desires. When it is not satisfied it will undertake every possible means to accomplish its goals. We know ourselves the deceptions we employ, the unkindness we practice and the impatience we display. We know how easily we are filled with jealousy, overcome by anger, or crippled by fear. Our sin is never to be denied, but always confessed.
We are reminded today that Jesus, our Good Shepherd, knows His sheep. Nothing can be hidden from Him and He is the only human that really knows humanity. Today we find Jesus in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication also known as Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that began in 167 B.C. It celebrates the rededication of the temple after it was desecrated by a Roman ruler hostile to the Jewish faith.
As Jesus was walking in the temple area built by Solomon the Jews gathered around Him. They pressed Him regarding His own self-understanding. Jesus told them, “I and the Father are one.”1 The validity of Christian teaching rests on the deity of Jesus Christ. The Son of God is of the same essence as the Father. The man Jesus possesses and fully exercises divine power. This truth is critical to the accomplishment of our salvation. The Jews understood what Jesus meant. The very next verse says they tried to stone Him for making Himself out to be the Son of God.
Jesus makes a claim about saving His sheep that only God could make. You will not find stronger or more reassuring words in all of Scripture. Yes, the Holy Spirit says it many times and in many ways throughout the Bible from the first word until the last. But this is as direct as it can be said. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”2 On the basis of this promise you can face death itself.
Jesus Himself lays down His life for the sheep. He is the Lamb that is sacrificed. Christ purifies the believer with His blood. There remains no trace of the filth and stain which blackens the sinner’s soul. The water of baptism washes it clean. Your garment of righteousness is made white by the blood of the Lamb. Though God knows you are a sinner, in Christ, He treats you as a saint. The crucified and risen Jesus keeps His promise: The sacrifice of His life frees us from our sins.
Those who don’t have this promise don’t have the essence of Christianity. They don’t have the gospel. They may know the historical information of the Bible; they may be well-versed in the commands of God’s laws; they may be steeped in ethics and stringent morality; they may live exemplary lives of service to others; they may be prosperous in all their worldly endeavors- always healthy and wealthy; but all this means nothing apart from salvation by grace. The Good Shepherd tends to you not because you are an adorable lamb or even tolerable in your own right. Christ loves the unlovable.
God accounts you righteous, acceptable in His sight, welcomed into His kingdom, freed from sin’s condemnation, released from death’s power, and spared from Satan’s accusations purely by the grace of His Son. He loves unconditionally. He gives freely. You cannot earn His love, merit His grace, or even prepare yourself as one who desires His mercy. The Scripture says you, “Are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”3 Faith is the vehicle which receives this gift of life. Faith is not even something you can do; it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. But it changes your perspective on everything. It helps us to see what is really meaningful.
A teenage boy lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he told his mother the lens was lost. Undaunted, she went outside and in a few minutes returned with the lens in her hand. "I really looked hard for that, Mum," said the son. "How'd you manage to find it?" "We weren't looking for the same thing," she replied. "You were looking for a small piece of plastic. I was looking for $150." And so it is with us. How often very small are our valuations of spiritual things? No wonder Christians often lack enthusiasm for God’s kingdom and the work of Christ’s church. We don’t correctly see the value in it. The Scripture says, “Where your treasure, is there your heart will be also.”4
But the true nature of God is shown precisely in the fact that He searches, seeks, and pursues us though, in and of ourselves, we are no more significant than the small piece of plastic. The Good Shepherd leaves the 99 and goes looking for the one lost sheep. He joyfully carries it home on His shoulders, leads it, protects it, and nourishes it.
Where do you get strength, the energy, and the motivation to go out into the fray each day? How will you combat the temptations of Satan, seek to mend broken relationships, bring healing to those suffering affliction, or offer hope to those in despair? If you are doing this by any other strength than the forgiveness of sins, the power of the Holy Spirit and the firm promise of God’s unconditional grace in Christ then your efforts will eventually fail.
Dear friends, you don’t know whether you’ll harvest a crop this year or whether you’ll even plant one. You don’t know if the economy will collapse next month, or whether you’ll loose your job. You don’t know if your health will fail next week or if tragedy will strike. But this much you do know: No one can snatch you out of HIS hand! Not the most persuasive skeptic, not the shrewdest opportunist, not the most influential evildoer, not Satan in the flesh or hell itself have the power, the cunning, or the skill to wrest you from the hands Him who had those hands nailed to a cross for you. He still bears the scars in His resurrected body
The imagery of the Shepherd and His sheep is some of the most beautiful in the Bible. Lambs cannot be snatched or stolen from Christ’s flock. He will not abandon them. He will not forsake them. He will not betray them. His protection of them is unwavering and unfailing. In His most blessed Name! Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +
Fourth Sunday of Easter
25 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 10:30
2 John 10:28-29
3 Romans 3:24
4 Matthew 6:21
Text: John 10:22-30
Theme: The Shepherd and His Sheep
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
God is found in the midst of struggle. More specifically, God enables us to recognise Him most clearly in the midst of trial. Faith is conceived in the conflict between accepting who we really are and trusting Christ as He truly is. It is the battle between clinging to the illusion of self-reliance and coming to terms with our dependency on God. The very meaning of life is tied up with the nature of our dependence on God. The person who thinks they possess a God who grants unlimited freedom for self-determination possesses only a construction of his own imagination. At the hour of death, if not before, it will all come crashing down. It is the very lie of Satan. But repentant sinners find in Christ a Saviour who, through His own suffering, binds their lives to His for eternity. This is true freedom.
The Bible depicts human nature as it really is, not as it only appears. We are born hopelessly self-centred and without true love or reverence for God. We are helpless to correct the situation or even recognise it on our own. The reality of sin, and all of its effects and consequences, can never be lost sight of without the risk of undermining the need for the gospel. The unbridled will is powerful. It relentlessly seeks to serve its own desires. When it is not satisfied it will undertake every possible means to accomplish its goals. We know ourselves the deceptions we employ, the unkindness we practice and the impatience we display. We know how easily we are filled with jealousy, overcome by anger, or crippled by fear. Our sin is never to be denied, but always confessed.
We are reminded today that Jesus, our Good Shepherd, knows His sheep. Nothing can be hidden from Him and He is the only human that really knows humanity. Today we find Jesus in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication also known as Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that began in 167 B.C. It celebrates the rededication of the temple after it was desecrated by a Roman ruler hostile to the Jewish faith.
As Jesus was walking in the temple area built by Solomon the Jews gathered around Him. They pressed Him regarding His own self-understanding. Jesus told them, “I and the Father are one.”1 The validity of Christian teaching rests on the deity of Jesus Christ. The Son of God is of the same essence as the Father. The man Jesus possesses and fully exercises divine power. This truth is critical to the accomplishment of our salvation. The Jews understood what Jesus meant. The very next verse says they tried to stone Him for making Himself out to be the Son of God.
Jesus makes a claim about saving His sheep that only God could make. You will not find stronger or more reassuring words in all of Scripture. Yes, the Holy Spirit says it many times and in many ways throughout the Bible from the first word until the last. But this is as direct as it can be said. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”2 On the basis of this promise you can face death itself.
Jesus Himself lays down His life for the sheep. He is the Lamb that is sacrificed. Christ purifies the believer with His blood. There remains no trace of the filth and stain which blackens the sinner’s soul. The water of baptism washes it clean. Your garment of righteousness is made white by the blood of the Lamb. Though God knows you are a sinner, in Christ, He treats you as a saint. The crucified and risen Jesus keeps His promise: The sacrifice of His life frees us from our sins.
Those who don’t have this promise don’t have the essence of Christianity. They don’t have the gospel. They may know the historical information of the Bible; they may be well-versed in the commands of God’s laws; they may be steeped in ethics and stringent morality; they may live exemplary lives of service to others; they may be prosperous in all their worldly endeavors- always healthy and wealthy; but all this means nothing apart from salvation by grace. The Good Shepherd tends to you not because you are an adorable lamb or even tolerable in your own right. Christ loves the unlovable.
God accounts you righteous, acceptable in His sight, welcomed into His kingdom, freed from sin’s condemnation, released from death’s power, and spared from Satan’s accusations purely by the grace of His Son. He loves unconditionally. He gives freely. You cannot earn His love, merit His grace, or even prepare yourself as one who desires His mercy. The Scripture says you, “Are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”3 Faith is the vehicle which receives this gift of life. Faith is not even something you can do; it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. But it changes your perspective on everything. It helps us to see what is really meaningful.
A teenage boy lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he told his mother the lens was lost. Undaunted, she went outside and in a few minutes returned with the lens in her hand. "I really looked hard for that, Mum," said the son. "How'd you manage to find it?" "We weren't looking for the same thing," she replied. "You were looking for a small piece of plastic. I was looking for $150." And so it is with us. How often very small are our valuations of spiritual things? No wonder Christians often lack enthusiasm for God’s kingdom and the work of Christ’s church. We don’t correctly see the value in it. The Scripture says, “Where your treasure, is there your heart will be also.”4
But the true nature of God is shown precisely in the fact that He searches, seeks, and pursues us though, in and of ourselves, we are no more significant than the small piece of plastic. The Good Shepherd leaves the 99 and goes looking for the one lost sheep. He joyfully carries it home on His shoulders, leads it, protects it, and nourishes it.
Where do you get strength, the energy, and the motivation to go out into the fray each day? How will you combat the temptations of Satan, seek to mend broken relationships, bring healing to those suffering affliction, or offer hope to those in despair? If you are doing this by any other strength than the forgiveness of sins, the power of the Holy Spirit and the firm promise of God’s unconditional grace in Christ then your efforts will eventually fail.
Dear friends, you don’t know whether you’ll harvest a crop this year or whether you’ll even plant one. You don’t know if the economy will collapse next month, or whether you’ll loose your job. You don’t know if your health will fail next week or if tragedy will strike. But this much you do know: No one can snatch you out of HIS hand! Not the most persuasive skeptic, not the shrewdest opportunist, not the most influential evildoer, not Satan in the flesh or hell itself have the power, the cunning, or the skill to wrest you from the hands Him who had those hands nailed to a cross for you. He still bears the scars in His resurrected body
The imagery of the Shepherd and His sheep is some of the most beautiful in the Bible. Lambs cannot be snatched or stolen from Christ’s flock. He will not abandon them. He will not forsake them. He will not betray them. His protection of them is unwavering and unfailing. In His most blessed Name! Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +
Fourth Sunday of Easter
25 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 10:30
2 John 10:28-29
3 Romans 3:24
4 Matthew 6:21
ANZAC Day, Loxton War Memorial
ANZAC DAY
Dawn Service
25 April, 2010
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things…and the God of peace will be with you.” The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:8, 9b
The dawn of April 25th on the shores of Gallipoli marked the beginning of a time of tragedy and valor, grief and courage, struggle and honour. Ideals were defended, friendships were forged, families were shattered, lives were lost. For those who battled, the outcome was far from certain. But they fought for the benefit of others. Through their toil, and that of many who endured the conflicts that followed, our present way of life was secured.
God calls us to remember. He calls us to remember the efforts of those who were willing to pay the highest price. Many sacrifices went unheralded. Many acts of bravery were unnoticed. Many stories were never told. God alone knows the unseen acts of heroism in faraway lands. But we need not know the details to remember. Remembering is not merely a passive activity but the motivation for imitation. We are called to imitate everything that is noble, excellent, and admirable.
In war there are no insincere prayers, no half-hearted pleas to God, no trivial cries for safety, no meaningless moments of peace. Efforts at thankfulness are purified. Life is cherished in a way never imagined important before. In war people see the face of evil and experience the forces of darkness. But they are also drawn near to the presence of God and come to a profound understanding of what matters most.
We honour those who died in sacrifice, not to glamorize their persons but to immortalize their commitment. Of their own personal fears, doubts, dreams or hopes; their struggles, thoughts or misgivings, succeeding generations can only guess. But we can be certain of the price they paid. This gift to us we cannot forget. We cannot know the future but we have been taught by those who shaped the past.
Those who do not learn the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. So too, those who do not cherish the liberties passed down from others risk losing them. Generations come and go but the stability of a free society rests on the shared commitment to the values which govern it. The past is not forgotten when it lives on, not only in memory but in the active maintenance of what has been given. Let us not merely live off the capital of their investment but defend the freedoms which they secured. Liberty brings with it both privilege and responsibility.
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things…and the God of peace will be with you.” Peace is a gift easily taken for granted. God alone can give it.
As we remember them this day we are thankful for the freedom to worship our gracious God without fear. May the Almighty God, for the sake of His Son, grant us the courage to use this freedom wisely, the ability to defend it honourably, and the generosity to extend it to others!
Pastor Darrin Kohrt
Concordia & Outlying Lutheran Congregations
Dawn Service
25 April, 2010
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things…and the God of peace will be with you.” The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:8, 9b
The dawn of April 25th on the shores of Gallipoli marked the beginning of a time of tragedy and valor, grief and courage, struggle and honour. Ideals were defended, friendships were forged, families were shattered, lives were lost. For those who battled, the outcome was far from certain. But they fought for the benefit of others. Through their toil, and that of many who endured the conflicts that followed, our present way of life was secured.
God calls us to remember. He calls us to remember the efforts of those who were willing to pay the highest price. Many sacrifices went unheralded. Many acts of bravery were unnoticed. Many stories were never told. God alone knows the unseen acts of heroism in faraway lands. But we need not know the details to remember. Remembering is not merely a passive activity but the motivation for imitation. We are called to imitate everything that is noble, excellent, and admirable.
In war there are no insincere prayers, no half-hearted pleas to God, no trivial cries for safety, no meaningless moments of peace. Efforts at thankfulness are purified. Life is cherished in a way never imagined important before. In war people see the face of evil and experience the forces of darkness. But they are also drawn near to the presence of God and come to a profound understanding of what matters most.
We honour those who died in sacrifice, not to glamorize their persons but to immortalize their commitment. Of their own personal fears, doubts, dreams or hopes; their struggles, thoughts or misgivings, succeeding generations can only guess. But we can be certain of the price they paid. This gift to us we cannot forget. We cannot know the future but we have been taught by those who shaped the past.
Those who do not learn the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. So too, those who do not cherish the liberties passed down from others risk losing them. Generations come and go but the stability of a free society rests on the shared commitment to the values which govern it. The past is not forgotten when it lives on, not only in memory but in the active maintenance of what has been given. Let us not merely live off the capital of their investment but defend the freedoms which they secured. Liberty brings with it both privilege and responsibility.
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things…and the God of peace will be with you.” Peace is a gift easily taken for granted. God alone can give it.
As we remember them this day we are thankful for the freedom to worship our gracious God without fear. May the Almighty God, for the sake of His Son, grant us the courage to use this freedom wisely, the ability to defend it honourably, and the generosity to extend it to others!
Pastor Darrin Kohrt
Concordia & Outlying Lutheran Congregations
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Third Sunday of Easter
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: John 21:11
Theme: “The Net Was Not Torn”
Christ is risen!
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
153! It is a very exact number. It was the number of large fish the disciples netted at the command of Christ after His resurrection. Yet the net did not break. The symbolism is important. God provides the harvest, and the resources, though strained, will not fail. Yet think of those Christ chose for the mission and the task they faced! Peter denied Him. Paul persecuted Him. Yet He made them into the pillars of the church. They were sent out into a world of godlessness and unbelief. We take for granted that it was a most unlikely beginning for the Christian Church to be where it is today. Such is the mercy and power of our Lord.
The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is one of the most important events in the history of Christianity. God blessed Paul with the zeal, intellect, and determination to articulate the gospel of Jesus Christ to Jew and Gentile alike. A former persecutor of the church, He became one of its staunchest and most active defenders. Christ turned his passion for persecution into a zeal for proclamation. Paul, like Luther after him, had a deep sense of his sinfulness and that helped to facilitate a profound articulation of God’s grace.
Paul understood his failure. If you don’t know yourself in the capacity in which you have failed, then you don’t really know yourself as you are before God. Denial is an enemy of repentance and Christian maturity. When we are most vulnerable is also when we are most accessible to God’s living word. The moment you think the sin you have just committed is insignificant or trivial is the moment it becomes an offense that invites God’s wrath. For those who are unremorseful and unrepentant the pettiest transgression is no different than the most heinous crime. The righteous justice of God threatens immediate punishment. The issue is not the magnitude of the sin but your lack of fear that God is concerned with it. Never presume God’s leniency. Never obligate Him to be tolerant. To do so is to sit in His seat of judgment. Idolatry is never as offensive as when it is cloaked with piety.
However for the person who rightly fears God’s judgment even the worst sin becomes easily forgivable in Christ. The very sin which you are horrified to reveal God will thoroughly remit. He can lift the most troubling and taxing burden off of you as if it had the weight of a feather. The cross of Christ silences the accusations of Satan. He has no case- though the evidence is mounted against you- because the punishment has been rendered on Calvary. Your conscience finds refuge in the wounds of the Lord’s body. There we find every support and consolation in time of need.
But the best measure of your spiritual integrity is not how you turn to God when in dire need, but how you receive Him when you feel no such distress. Prosperity easily causes God to be viewed through a different lens. People then struggle to justify devoting time and resource to God. We should be careful not to offer God empty praise. God needs our hollow acclamations no more than we desire patronizing comments from a respected friend.
Dear friends, the question is not whether life is a string of successes, or a rollercoaster of accomplishments and failures as measured by worldly standards. Christians are not indebted to the schemes of the world. Society will inevitably measure each of us by its criteria of values but God cares nothing at all of the judgments of power-brokers, peasants, or peers. The Bible says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.”1 And again, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”2 The value of your life is seen in the sacrifice of Jesus. All other assessments pale in comparison.
In baptism God “hides” your life in Christ. That is, this blessing is invisible to the reason of human intellect. It is nonsensical to the unbeliever. But it sets the believer in harmony with God’s new structure and order reconstituted in His Son. It incorporates into the mystery of the church- Christ’s body in faith. God leaves nothing to chance. Everything is vested with significance by the Redeemer of whom Paul says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen.”3 Only by the Holy Spirit can this be said; and it can only have meaning to believers.
Easter changes things. Three times did Simon Peter deny Him and so three times does Jesus question him. Jesus calls for integrity. “Simon son of John, do you truly love Me?”4 Christ knew the answer but the exercise was for Peter’s benefit. The Lord would not have Peter to dwell on his failures of the past. He would not have him hamstrung by the haunting memory of those Holy Week denials. The resurrection moves things inexorably forward. New hope, new life, and new perspectives are being granted. A new era has begun.
Jesus reinstates Peter. But the way ahead for the apostles would be difficult. All but John were martyred for the faith. The Word of God continues to meet with opposition. Rather than face it Christians are tempted to concede to the false teachings of the world out of fear or for the sake of peace. But the Living Christ says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”5
Christ is the victor over sin and death. His crucifixion and resurrection are the source of life. When it comes to the gospel God is the subject of all the verbs. God justifies. God forgives. God pardons. God declares you righteous and holy through the blood of Christ though you are by nature full of iniquity. He absolves you of all your offenses removing them as far away as the East is from the West. He frees you from the condemnation due to you by substituting His Son as captive in your place. He calls you by name.
The attention God gives to detail serves to remind us that not only does nothing escape Him, but that He concerns Himself with the smallest particulars. The Spirit who recorded the 153 fish caught in the apostle’s net is the same one who reminds us that He numbers the very hairs on your head. And the Psalmist writes, “All of the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”6 Thanks be to God that He leaves nothing to chance. Amen.
Christ is risen!
+ in nomine Jesu +
Third Sunday of Easter
18 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Romans 12:2
2 1 John 2:17
3 Romans 11:36
4 John 21:17
5 John 16:33
6 Psalm 139:16
Text: John 21:11
Theme: “The Net Was Not Torn”
Christ is risen!
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
153! It is a very exact number. It was the number of large fish the disciples netted at the command of Christ after His resurrection. Yet the net did not break. The symbolism is important. God provides the harvest, and the resources, though strained, will not fail. Yet think of those Christ chose for the mission and the task they faced! Peter denied Him. Paul persecuted Him. Yet He made them into the pillars of the church. They were sent out into a world of godlessness and unbelief. We take for granted that it was a most unlikely beginning for the Christian Church to be where it is today. Such is the mercy and power of our Lord.
The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is one of the most important events in the history of Christianity. God blessed Paul with the zeal, intellect, and determination to articulate the gospel of Jesus Christ to Jew and Gentile alike. A former persecutor of the church, He became one of its staunchest and most active defenders. Christ turned his passion for persecution into a zeal for proclamation. Paul, like Luther after him, had a deep sense of his sinfulness and that helped to facilitate a profound articulation of God’s grace.
Paul understood his failure. If you don’t know yourself in the capacity in which you have failed, then you don’t really know yourself as you are before God. Denial is an enemy of repentance and Christian maturity. When we are most vulnerable is also when we are most accessible to God’s living word. The moment you think the sin you have just committed is insignificant or trivial is the moment it becomes an offense that invites God’s wrath. For those who are unremorseful and unrepentant the pettiest transgression is no different than the most heinous crime. The righteous justice of God threatens immediate punishment. The issue is not the magnitude of the sin but your lack of fear that God is concerned with it. Never presume God’s leniency. Never obligate Him to be tolerant. To do so is to sit in His seat of judgment. Idolatry is never as offensive as when it is cloaked with piety.
However for the person who rightly fears God’s judgment even the worst sin becomes easily forgivable in Christ. The very sin which you are horrified to reveal God will thoroughly remit. He can lift the most troubling and taxing burden off of you as if it had the weight of a feather. The cross of Christ silences the accusations of Satan. He has no case- though the evidence is mounted against you- because the punishment has been rendered on Calvary. Your conscience finds refuge in the wounds of the Lord’s body. There we find every support and consolation in time of need.
But the best measure of your spiritual integrity is not how you turn to God when in dire need, but how you receive Him when you feel no such distress. Prosperity easily causes God to be viewed through a different lens. People then struggle to justify devoting time and resource to God. We should be careful not to offer God empty praise. God needs our hollow acclamations no more than we desire patronizing comments from a respected friend.
Dear friends, the question is not whether life is a string of successes, or a rollercoaster of accomplishments and failures as measured by worldly standards. Christians are not indebted to the schemes of the world. Society will inevitably measure each of us by its criteria of values but God cares nothing at all of the judgments of power-brokers, peasants, or peers. The Bible says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.”1 And again, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”2 The value of your life is seen in the sacrifice of Jesus. All other assessments pale in comparison.
In baptism God “hides” your life in Christ. That is, this blessing is invisible to the reason of human intellect. It is nonsensical to the unbeliever. But it sets the believer in harmony with God’s new structure and order reconstituted in His Son. It incorporates into the mystery of the church- Christ’s body in faith. God leaves nothing to chance. Everything is vested with significance by the Redeemer of whom Paul says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen.”3 Only by the Holy Spirit can this be said; and it can only have meaning to believers.
Easter changes things. Three times did Simon Peter deny Him and so three times does Jesus question him. Jesus calls for integrity. “Simon son of John, do you truly love Me?”4 Christ knew the answer but the exercise was for Peter’s benefit. The Lord would not have Peter to dwell on his failures of the past. He would not have him hamstrung by the haunting memory of those Holy Week denials. The resurrection moves things inexorably forward. New hope, new life, and new perspectives are being granted. A new era has begun.
Jesus reinstates Peter. But the way ahead for the apostles would be difficult. All but John were martyred for the faith. The Word of God continues to meet with opposition. Rather than face it Christians are tempted to concede to the false teachings of the world out of fear or for the sake of peace. But the Living Christ says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”5
Christ is the victor over sin and death. His crucifixion and resurrection are the source of life. When it comes to the gospel God is the subject of all the verbs. God justifies. God forgives. God pardons. God declares you righteous and holy through the blood of Christ though you are by nature full of iniquity. He absolves you of all your offenses removing them as far away as the East is from the West. He frees you from the condemnation due to you by substituting His Son as captive in your place. He calls you by name.
The attention God gives to detail serves to remind us that not only does nothing escape Him, but that He concerns Himself with the smallest particulars. The Spirit who recorded the 153 fish caught in the apostle’s net is the same one who reminds us that He numbers the very hairs on your head. And the Psalmist writes, “All of the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”6 Thanks be to God that He leaves nothing to chance. Amen.
Christ is risen!
+ in nomine Jesu +
Third Sunday of Easter
18 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Romans 12:2
2 1 John 2:17
3 Romans 11:36
4 John 21:17
5 John 16:33
6 Psalm 139:16
Monday, April 12, 2010
Second Sunday of Easter
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: John 20:27
Theme: Thomas’ Gift
Christ is risen!
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
Things change. Easter changes things. Sometimes things change gradually and almost imperceptibly, at other times immediately and emphatically. Some change is good, other change is bad. Good or bad God uses change to move history towards its conclusion. Unbelief invites the final separation from God for which it strives while Christ prepares the faithful for an unending fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In heaven change (as it relates to aging and decay) becomes obsolete.
Following Jesus’ resurrection from the dead the disciples faced dramatic changes in their lives. Thomas is a key person in these post-resurrection events. The disciple named Thomas was a twin. He was commonly referred to in this manner until Jesus’ resurrection. He was later dubbed “doubting Thomas.” He has been known in this way ever since. Absent when the risen Lord first appeared to His disciples Thomas was not convinced Jesus was alive. “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.”1
And so it was that Jesus allowed Thomas not only to see but also to touch His resurrected body. But Jesus doesn’t simply give in to Thomas’s request or use it as a way to make an ostentatious show of power. This is about more than just Thomas; it is about the faith of the apostolic church throughout the ages. It was on the testimony of these witnesses that the church would be built. The words of these eye-witnesses, recorded in the New Testament testifying how Christ was the fulfillment of the Old, would be the means by which the Spirit gathers the church. St. John says today, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”2
It is commonplace to believe things on the testimony of others. Were you there when Plato and Socrates waxed lyrical, Alexander the Great subdued nations, or Rome stood for a thousand years and then crumbled? Were you present when the pyramids were built in Egypt, the Great Wall in China, or the Mayan temples in Mexico? You have not seen these things, and yet do you not believe them?
Satan though is very skilled at placing seeds of doubt. He cultivates deeply, scatters broadly, and waters frequently. This is true in regards to the minor issues that contribute to the fabric of our Christian faith and life as well as the major ones that form the foundation. Doubt can come unexpectedly. Lord Halifax, a former foreign secretary of Great Britain, once shared a railway compartment with two prim and proper-looking spinsters. A few moments before reaching his destination the train passed through a tunnel. In the complete darkness Halifax kissed the back of his hand noisily several times. When the train drew into the station, he rose, lifted his hat, and in a gentlemanly way said: "May I thank whichever one of you two ladies I am indebted to for the charming incident in the tunnel." He then beat a hasty retreat, leaving the two ladies glaring at each other. How much more cleverly does the devil cause us to question and then bid us to glare at each other!
The tendency to doubt that God is always and ever concerned with our well-being is what drives every lapse towards unbelief. We may deplore our sins, but we’d often rather trust ourselves as sinners than Christ, the one who has conquered sin and frees us from its retribution. The law of God constantly calls us to self-recognition of our failings, sins, and short-comings. It demands we own up to our transgressions. It finally insists that we accept the truth about ourselves: We remain sinners always in need of the mercy of God. That situation will not change as long as we live on this earth.
Our sin is also the cause of tension, confusion, and even brokenness in our human relationships. We become tangled in battles of will; sometimes locked in an embrace of mutual determination that holds little hope of being broken. We become inflexible towards those to whom we should be most vulnerable, unavailable to those to whom we should be most helpful, condescending towards those to whom we should be most humble.
God knows that we grapple. Attacks come relentlessly. We are stretched by doubt, tested by trials, and tempered by failures. Our passion becomes quenched, our integrity compromised, and our apathy immovable. But Christ is risen, and He sends the Spirit to breathe new life. Again, and again remember His promises. Again, and again receive His forgiveness. We are not baptised without purpose or effect. We are cross-bearing people and the resurrection of Christ doesn’t make our struggles trivial, it invests them with real meaning.
Thomas is for us-if we are honest- someone with whom we can resonate. But we dare not ask for what he did. Jesus needs to make no such concession to us. Thomas’s witness is a gift to our faith. An historical faith in the biblical witness is not saving faith. The Holy Spirit forms within the heart a reliance on the Christ who was not only part of history but who directs history to the fulfillment of His purposes. Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldeans, Moses led the people from life along the Nile in Egypt to the deserts of the Sinai peninsula, David ruled the united kingdom from Jerusalem, Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. These events happed at specific times and in distinct places as part of God’s plan of salvation. On the other hand to claim we have saving faith- trust that Jesus died for our sins- but that the historical events are more or less irrelevant is a contradiction that undermines the very foundations of Christianity. The two always go together.
And we are not left without God’s tangible means. Jesus has broken into our world to alter its destiny. His presence is not maintained by the power of the mind or the skill or the imagination. We still hear, we still see, we still taste the blessing of God. Thomas touched the flesh of the risen Christ. You receive His flesh and blood in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine. How privileged were those who were eye-witnesses to the risen Jesus! How privileged are we to have this sacred food! Thomas’s Lord and God is our Saviour. In this meal we participate in the continuity of salvation history.
Jesus lives! Like Thomas many still doubt that this could be true. For others it just seems irrelevant. For many the drudgery of life continues on under the dark shadow of sin. To them Christians are lights in dark places. We bring glimmers of hope and reflections of peace. We engage people not with artificial happiness but humble and honest reflection on the truth. The power of death has lost its sting. Christ has freed sinners from their fate! Existence does not hinge on correct solutions to global warming or the blind chance of evolutionary theory. The sacrifice once made is still accomplishing its purpose. Jesus was not a footnote in history. History finds its completion in Him. The risen Christ is a preview of the believer’s own resurrection. “To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father- to Him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”3
Christ is risen!
+ in nomine Jesu +
Second Sunday of Easter
11 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 20:25
2 John 20:31
3 Revelation 1:5-6
Text: John 20:27
Theme: Thomas’ Gift
Christ is risen!
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
Things change. Easter changes things. Sometimes things change gradually and almost imperceptibly, at other times immediately and emphatically. Some change is good, other change is bad. Good or bad God uses change to move history towards its conclusion. Unbelief invites the final separation from God for which it strives while Christ prepares the faithful for an unending fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In heaven change (as it relates to aging and decay) becomes obsolete.
Following Jesus’ resurrection from the dead the disciples faced dramatic changes in their lives. Thomas is a key person in these post-resurrection events. The disciple named Thomas was a twin. He was commonly referred to in this manner until Jesus’ resurrection. He was later dubbed “doubting Thomas.” He has been known in this way ever since. Absent when the risen Lord first appeared to His disciples Thomas was not convinced Jesus was alive. “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.”1
And so it was that Jesus allowed Thomas not only to see but also to touch His resurrected body. But Jesus doesn’t simply give in to Thomas’s request or use it as a way to make an ostentatious show of power. This is about more than just Thomas; it is about the faith of the apostolic church throughout the ages. It was on the testimony of these witnesses that the church would be built. The words of these eye-witnesses, recorded in the New Testament testifying how Christ was the fulfillment of the Old, would be the means by which the Spirit gathers the church. St. John says today, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”2
It is commonplace to believe things on the testimony of others. Were you there when Plato and Socrates waxed lyrical, Alexander the Great subdued nations, or Rome stood for a thousand years and then crumbled? Were you present when the pyramids were built in Egypt, the Great Wall in China, or the Mayan temples in Mexico? You have not seen these things, and yet do you not believe them?
Satan though is very skilled at placing seeds of doubt. He cultivates deeply, scatters broadly, and waters frequently. This is true in regards to the minor issues that contribute to the fabric of our Christian faith and life as well as the major ones that form the foundation. Doubt can come unexpectedly. Lord Halifax, a former foreign secretary of Great Britain, once shared a railway compartment with two prim and proper-looking spinsters. A few moments before reaching his destination the train passed through a tunnel. In the complete darkness Halifax kissed the back of his hand noisily several times. When the train drew into the station, he rose, lifted his hat, and in a gentlemanly way said: "May I thank whichever one of you two ladies I am indebted to for the charming incident in the tunnel." He then beat a hasty retreat, leaving the two ladies glaring at each other. How much more cleverly does the devil cause us to question and then bid us to glare at each other!
The tendency to doubt that God is always and ever concerned with our well-being is what drives every lapse towards unbelief. We may deplore our sins, but we’d often rather trust ourselves as sinners than Christ, the one who has conquered sin and frees us from its retribution. The law of God constantly calls us to self-recognition of our failings, sins, and short-comings. It demands we own up to our transgressions. It finally insists that we accept the truth about ourselves: We remain sinners always in need of the mercy of God. That situation will not change as long as we live on this earth.
Our sin is also the cause of tension, confusion, and even brokenness in our human relationships. We become tangled in battles of will; sometimes locked in an embrace of mutual determination that holds little hope of being broken. We become inflexible towards those to whom we should be most vulnerable, unavailable to those to whom we should be most helpful, condescending towards those to whom we should be most humble.
God knows that we grapple. Attacks come relentlessly. We are stretched by doubt, tested by trials, and tempered by failures. Our passion becomes quenched, our integrity compromised, and our apathy immovable. But Christ is risen, and He sends the Spirit to breathe new life. Again, and again remember His promises. Again, and again receive His forgiveness. We are not baptised without purpose or effect. We are cross-bearing people and the resurrection of Christ doesn’t make our struggles trivial, it invests them with real meaning.
Thomas is for us-if we are honest- someone with whom we can resonate. But we dare not ask for what he did. Jesus needs to make no such concession to us. Thomas’s witness is a gift to our faith. An historical faith in the biblical witness is not saving faith. The Holy Spirit forms within the heart a reliance on the Christ who was not only part of history but who directs history to the fulfillment of His purposes. Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldeans, Moses led the people from life along the Nile in Egypt to the deserts of the Sinai peninsula, David ruled the united kingdom from Jerusalem, Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. These events happed at specific times and in distinct places as part of God’s plan of salvation. On the other hand to claim we have saving faith- trust that Jesus died for our sins- but that the historical events are more or less irrelevant is a contradiction that undermines the very foundations of Christianity. The two always go together.
And we are not left without God’s tangible means. Jesus has broken into our world to alter its destiny. His presence is not maintained by the power of the mind or the skill or the imagination. We still hear, we still see, we still taste the blessing of God. Thomas touched the flesh of the risen Christ. You receive His flesh and blood in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine. How privileged were those who were eye-witnesses to the risen Jesus! How privileged are we to have this sacred food! Thomas’s Lord and God is our Saviour. In this meal we participate in the continuity of salvation history.
Jesus lives! Like Thomas many still doubt that this could be true. For others it just seems irrelevant. For many the drudgery of life continues on under the dark shadow of sin. To them Christians are lights in dark places. We bring glimmers of hope and reflections of peace. We engage people not with artificial happiness but humble and honest reflection on the truth. The power of death has lost its sting. Christ has freed sinners from their fate! Existence does not hinge on correct solutions to global warming or the blind chance of evolutionary theory. The sacrifice once made is still accomplishing its purpose. Jesus was not a footnote in history. History finds its completion in Him. The risen Christ is a preview of the believer’s own resurrection. “To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father- to Him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”3
Christ is risen!
+ in nomine Jesu +
Second Sunday of Easter
11 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 20:25
2 John 20:31
3 Revelation 1:5-6
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Sermon for the Resurrection of our Lord
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: Luke 24:8
Theme: Remembering His Words
Christ is risen!
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
The tomb was empty. The body of Jesus did not suffer decay. Death’s victory was short-lived. Our celebration is eternal! Jesus Christ was not resuscitated in the manner in which Lazarus was raised. Lazarus was restored to the life he knew before- limited by the rigors and constrains of an existence still governed by sin. But Jesus’ time of limitation was ended. He had assumed His glorified body for eternity. He had inaugurated His kingdom of glory. Easter dawns with the unending light of His immortal existence.
The Holy Spirit generates joy in the heart and praise on the lips of all who continue to be gathered to that great cloud of witnesses to these events. Then women were the first. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again’”1
Then others followed. The apostle Paul says, “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.”2And so the ancient Christian Church has confessed it in like manner- stating it similarly in the Nicene Creed. In that universal confession of faith we say “and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures.” This is the vindication of His passion. His death was not in vain.
But how can we verify these truths? The Holy Spirit engenders faith, but only and always through the vehicle of the word. The Jesus we have is always the Jesus of the Holy Scriptures. The tendency to disconnect the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word is an extension of the practice of unshackling Christ from the Scriptures. But the two tendencies have a mutual influence on one another. The human will always wants to be free to reconstruct the evidence of Jesus in a manner suitable to its own wisdom.
But this alleged freedom is really bondage to human philosophy and capitulation to the desire of individual interpretation. The meaning of the individual’s take on the resurrection, or crucifixion, or sending of the Spirit supersedes the common witness of the church. “What does this mean?” is cast aside in favour of “What does this mean to me?” The temptation is to answer in an ego-centric manner. This may go no further than harmless speculation or even helpful edification about God’s purpose and place for you in life. The danger lies in making this the method of determining God’s truth. The satisfaction gained from arriving at a pleasing answer is often short-lived. We soon find ourselves chasing up further affirmation and questioning our assessment. What is the Holy Spirit saying to me now? Has God’s plan changed in this new situation? How can my feeling of the Spirit’s work in my life be sustained? These questions must be answered by the unchangeable biblical witness or even the resurrection risks becoming relegated to the past.
A number of motivations underpin this pursuit. One is a degree of skepticism about the ancient witnesses. It is a desire to be distanced from any ideas or interpretations that appear to be too rudimentary or fundamentalist. Consider the phenomena of the crucifixion, including the hours of darkness and the earthquake; the descriptions of Easter morning, including the angels, the empty tomb, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus- the modern mind often wants to be free from an archaic interpretation of any details which are unverifiable by science. It balks at being identified with dogmatic beliefs. Yet there stands the risen Christ with nails marks still visible.
More influential still is the intense need to feel God’s personal working in one’s life. People seek to answer crises of meaning by believing that God has singled them out for a special purpose or the Holy Spirit leads them in a way that is unique. Modern secular marketing has its spiritual parallels. Identify your ‘giftings’ and claim the niche in God’s kingdom that is rightfully yours. The inescapable heresy involved is that one must convince God to acknowledge something more appealing in us than He does in others and so expect He will treat us differently.
To be favoured by God is not the same thing as being His favourite. “Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord,”3 and Mary was greeted by Gabriel as the one who was “highly favoured.”4 The mystery of why they were chosen is not solved by claiming they had a higher degree of inherent righteousness. They were favoured by God, they were not His favourites. The particular expression of God’s blessing to one believer does not compromise His grace to the next. In heaven any temptations to such speculation will be obsolete. The promise of Easter is that Christ’s victory over death is universal- the same blessing to one and to all.
Most problematic of all is the desire to be in control. When the influence of the common witness of the church and the objective meaning of the Scriptures are kept to a minimum one can easily arrive at a self-directed life of sanctification. This may be done under the auspices of the Holy Spirit but only loosely regulated by the inspired Word. Everything then becomes turned on its head. The individual becomes the judge of which biblical truths are desirable and which are obstacles to the pursuit of his or her personal spiritual agenda. This makes us vulnerable to the short-comings of self-limiting the content of faith.
Self-authenticated faith lacks dexterity. Café-style faith is not fortified and nourished by the full wisdom and truth of God in Jesus Christ. We soon find that our own resources are very limited. How will you negotiate the minefields of temptation, fear, failure and doubt? What will cushion your fall when you plummet from the heights of self-reliance, crumble under weight of expectations or despair in the goodness of humanity? Will you take comfort in your record of obedience? Will you flee to the certainty of your feelings? Will you recommit yourself to doing better and trying harder?
The grace of Christ frees you from these pressures. You are one of God’s elect. You know this not from believing you believe strongly enough to never falter. You know it from the promise of your baptism. God calls you by name at a particular time and place and in a specific way. In it the Holy Spirit applies the objective promise of God to you. God promises to be faithful to you. He does not lie. Of course baptism is not a means to short-cut the struggle of faith. No one can play God as the fool. Like grace, it is not a license for apathy, idolatry, or immorality.
But Baptism is where the divine favour of God becomes relevant to the human soul. God’s chooses you- a sinner- and takes in hand to wash away your sins, receive you into the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, saints, and angels, and promise you life and salvation. Adam’s curse which bound you is overcome by Christ’s favour which frees you. The Bible says of Noah’s flood, “This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also- not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”5
Dear friends, today we rejoice that the living voice of the gospel continues to proclaim ancient truth to a new generation. We worship in continuity with the saints across the ages. We receive the same body and blood and are freed by the same promise of forgiveness. The liturgy of the church is the edifice that supports the interface between time and eternity. The words of Scripture are the currency the Holy Spirit uses to draw us into an ancient conversation. On this Easter Sunday, and every Sunday, we worship with a living community of believers. Some are still bound in time others exist in eternity. But all have the same future- through the risen Christ: Eternity with the triune God. Amen.
Christ is risen!
+ in nomine Jesu +
The Resurrection of our Lord
4 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 24:5-7
2 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
3 Genesis 6:8
4 Luke 1:28
5 1 Peter 3:21
Text: Luke 24:8
Theme: Remembering His Words
Christ is risen!
Dear worshippers of the risen Jesus,
The tomb was empty. The body of Jesus did not suffer decay. Death’s victory was short-lived. Our celebration is eternal! Jesus Christ was not resuscitated in the manner in which Lazarus was raised. Lazarus was restored to the life he knew before- limited by the rigors and constrains of an existence still governed by sin. But Jesus’ time of limitation was ended. He had assumed His glorified body for eternity. He had inaugurated His kingdom of glory. Easter dawns with the unending light of His immortal existence.
The Holy Spirit generates joy in the heart and praise on the lips of all who continue to be gathered to that great cloud of witnesses to these events. Then women were the first. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again’”1
Then others followed. The apostle Paul says, “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.”2And so the ancient Christian Church has confessed it in like manner- stating it similarly in the Nicene Creed. In that universal confession of faith we say “and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures.” This is the vindication of His passion. His death was not in vain.
But how can we verify these truths? The Holy Spirit engenders faith, but only and always through the vehicle of the word. The Jesus we have is always the Jesus of the Holy Scriptures. The tendency to disconnect the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word is an extension of the practice of unshackling Christ from the Scriptures. But the two tendencies have a mutual influence on one another. The human will always wants to be free to reconstruct the evidence of Jesus in a manner suitable to its own wisdom.
But this alleged freedom is really bondage to human philosophy and capitulation to the desire of individual interpretation. The meaning of the individual’s take on the resurrection, or crucifixion, or sending of the Spirit supersedes the common witness of the church. “What does this mean?” is cast aside in favour of “What does this mean to me?” The temptation is to answer in an ego-centric manner. This may go no further than harmless speculation or even helpful edification about God’s purpose and place for you in life. The danger lies in making this the method of determining God’s truth. The satisfaction gained from arriving at a pleasing answer is often short-lived. We soon find ourselves chasing up further affirmation and questioning our assessment. What is the Holy Spirit saying to me now? Has God’s plan changed in this new situation? How can my feeling of the Spirit’s work in my life be sustained? These questions must be answered by the unchangeable biblical witness or even the resurrection risks becoming relegated to the past.
A number of motivations underpin this pursuit. One is a degree of skepticism about the ancient witnesses. It is a desire to be distanced from any ideas or interpretations that appear to be too rudimentary or fundamentalist. Consider the phenomena of the crucifixion, including the hours of darkness and the earthquake; the descriptions of Easter morning, including the angels, the empty tomb, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus- the modern mind often wants to be free from an archaic interpretation of any details which are unverifiable by science. It balks at being identified with dogmatic beliefs. Yet there stands the risen Christ with nails marks still visible.
More influential still is the intense need to feel God’s personal working in one’s life. People seek to answer crises of meaning by believing that God has singled them out for a special purpose or the Holy Spirit leads them in a way that is unique. Modern secular marketing has its spiritual parallels. Identify your ‘giftings’ and claim the niche in God’s kingdom that is rightfully yours. The inescapable heresy involved is that one must convince God to acknowledge something more appealing in us than He does in others and so expect He will treat us differently.
To be favoured by God is not the same thing as being His favourite. “Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord,”3 and Mary was greeted by Gabriel as the one who was “highly favoured.”4 The mystery of why they were chosen is not solved by claiming they had a higher degree of inherent righteousness. They were favoured by God, they were not His favourites. The particular expression of God’s blessing to one believer does not compromise His grace to the next. In heaven any temptations to such speculation will be obsolete. The promise of Easter is that Christ’s victory over death is universal- the same blessing to one and to all.
Most problematic of all is the desire to be in control. When the influence of the common witness of the church and the objective meaning of the Scriptures are kept to a minimum one can easily arrive at a self-directed life of sanctification. This may be done under the auspices of the Holy Spirit but only loosely regulated by the inspired Word. Everything then becomes turned on its head. The individual becomes the judge of which biblical truths are desirable and which are obstacles to the pursuit of his or her personal spiritual agenda. This makes us vulnerable to the short-comings of self-limiting the content of faith.
Self-authenticated faith lacks dexterity. Café-style faith is not fortified and nourished by the full wisdom and truth of God in Jesus Christ. We soon find that our own resources are very limited. How will you negotiate the minefields of temptation, fear, failure and doubt? What will cushion your fall when you plummet from the heights of self-reliance, crumble under weight of expectations or despair in the goodness of humanity? Will you take comfort in your record of obedience? Will you flee to the certainty of your feelings? Will you recommit yourself to doing better and trying harder?
The grace of Christ frees you from these pressures. You are one of God’s elect. You know this not from believing you believe strongly enough to never falter. You know it from the promise of your baptism. God calls you by name at a particular time and place and in a specific way. In it the Holy Spirit applies the objective promise of God to you. God promises to be faithful to you. He does not lie. Of course baptism is not a means to short-cut the struggle of faith. No one can play God as the fool. Like grace, it is not a license for apathy, idolatry, or immorality.
But Baptism is where the divine favour of God becomes relevant to the human soul. God’s chooses you- a sinner- and takes in hand to wash away your sins, receive you into the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, saints, and angels, and promise you life and salvation. Adam’s curse which bound you is overcome by Christ’s favour which frees you. The Bible says of Noah’s flood, “This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also- not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”5
Dear friends, today we rejoice that the living voice of the gospel continues to proclaim ancient truth to a new generation. We worship in continuity with the saints across the ages. We receive the same body and blood and are freed by the same promise of forgiveness. The liturgy of the church is the edifice that supports the interface between time and eternity. The words of Scripture are the currency the Holy Spirit uses to draw us into an ancient conversation. On this Easter Sunday, and every Sunday, we worship with a living community of believers. Some are still bound in time others exist in eternity. But all have the same future- through the risen Christ: Eternity with the triune God. Amen.
Christ is risen!
+ in nomine Jesu +
The Resurrection of our Lord
4 April 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 24:5-7
2 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
3 Genesis 6:8
4 Luke 1:28
5 1 Peter 3:21
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Good Friday
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: John 19:10-11
Theme: The Greater Power
Dear baptized in the Lord Jesus,
Something unrepeatable happens on Calvary. It is a singular even of unparalleled consequence. Humanly it is inconceivable and immeasurable. It is inconceivable not in the sense that we would be appalled that this righteous man would be sentenced to die, but in the sense that God would undertake to redeem the world in this way. Human beings do not- they cannot- naturally think in this way. According to human wisdom the cross is the pinnacle of irony, tragedy, and failure. It is pure nonsense.
All others miracles aside, at His death Jesus appears to succumb to weakness. How could His passivity accomplish redemption! History records the role of human powers. Pilate was accustomed to an unchallenged use of his authority. “Don’t you realize I have the power either to free you or crucify you?”1 He could not fully understand what Jesus meant when He responded, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”2 Yet he sensed that it was something to be reckoned with and it caused him fear. “From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free.”3
Many deaths have happened and will happen, but only this death, His death, is the sacrifice for sins. The countless sacrifices carefully numbered by the priests generation after generation now reach their obsolescence. It was the goal for which they were destined. The significance does not escape the writer to the Hebrews. “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.”4
But old habits die hard. We always prefer to do things our way- in all things- spiritual pursuits included. People sometimes try to seek comfort in the death of Christ while still rejecting its full implications. They doubt it is at the centre of existence to the extent that it gives meaning to absolutely everything. This doubt can be dressed up in all kinds of sophistication. The universe seems much too large and complex to be finally explained and governed by the crucifixion of a First Century Jewish man. In harboring this doubt modern people share the proclivities of the ancient Greeks who believed matter was eternal and the soul was trapped in the body waiting for release. Contemporary thinking resonates with such skepticism: Time passes, old events become obsolete, new ideas are embraced, things change, meaning is elusive. But original false teachings are only re-introduced with new images and there is nothing new under the sun. Human wisdom always doubts God would limit Himself to such historical circumstances.
But God did chose to define reality and meaning within such parameters. These events are historical. Their meaning is not the putty for religious theory. Christ died because you are a sinner. No other reason is finally relevant to you. Christ bore your punishment on the cross. Everything else you know is secondary to that. The law leaves you no escape. But the gospel offers you full pardon. You partake of His body and blood as a concrete expression of these truths. To trust that Christ did this out of unconditional love for you is to see God- and approach life- in a different light.
There was a sculptor who invested painstaking time and effort crafting a life-sized statue of Christ. It was considered by even the strongest critics to be a masterpiece. When it was unveiled people came and admired it from every angle and perspective. They praised the detail and skill that it displayed. But they approached it only as a work of art. The artist, however, had a different intention. He said, “If you want to see it rightly, it’s best to kneel.” This is the spiritual posture of the baptismal life.
God sees us through the challenges we encounter. Pain, doubt, fear, sickness, disappointment, confusion, apathy, and the list is endless. But on this Good Friday what takes centre stage is the resolution of our mortality. Only Christ has this power. The questions faced at the threshold of death are quickly sifted. Trivial matters immediately become irrelevant. Weightier matters come to the fore: relationships yet unreconciled, dreams still unfulfilled, hopes never realized- these things occupy the heart and mind when death draws near. But one concern dominates them all: On what basis will God be faced? What confidence do I have in His acceptance? When your own conscience threatens to desert you where will you turn?
When you are dying you want the assurance of someone who’s been there. Finally no half-way measures will do; no equivocation. There are no negotiations, no other options; the believer will pass this way. There is no other gateway, no other portal, no other entrance. When the believer reclines in death the soul completes its journey in the footsteps of Christ and there reposes until the glorification of the body. The approximations, and the guesswork, and the naïve speculations about what it really means to die can only be resolved in Him who has the power over death. For those without faith consideration of death may quickly become not only a time of intense doubt, but of frantic disillusionment and despair.
For the believer too it comes with its challenges and temptations. The Old Adam fights within us to the end. Yet we face the throne as saints declared righteous by grace. We can stand before Him illuminated in Easter glow. We need not fear what He has conquered. Christ teaches us how to die. We cannot by-pass death, but Jesus has the greater power. Equal to the Father; one with the Spirit; superior to angels; a Redeemer of mortals, Jesus the Christ died once for all. In that one death He died as if suffering innumerable deaths and immeasurable pain. Sin cannot rule Him. Satan cannot judge Him. Hell cannot contain Him. Death cannot hold Him.
Dear friends, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was unpreventable and is unrepeatable. It makes possible for us an unchanging eternity. This one event of death effects the resurrection of the many. Our participation in the death of Christ is not the same as our participation in His resurrection. When our sins are put to death in His body we are spared the pain, torment, and condemnation which He endured. But in the resurrection we will fully experience in our glorified bodies the vibrancy of His life. In death He bears the sentence. In life we enjoy the victory. His sacrifice is the commentary on all existence- for from it all who are consecrated by Him and for Him receive immortal life. Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +
April 2 2010
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 19:10
2 John 19:11
3 John 19:12
4 Hebrews 10:11-12
Text: John 19:10-11
Theme: The Greater Power
Dear baptized in the Lord Jesus,
Something unrepeatable happens on Calvary. It is a singular even of unparalleled consequence. Humanly it is inconceivable and immeasurable. It is inconceivable not in the sense that we would be appalled that this righteous man would be sentenced to die, but in the sense that God would undertake to redeem the world in this way. Human beings do not- they cannot- naturally think in this way. According to human wisdom the cross is the pinnacle of irony, tragedy, and failure. It is pure nonsense.
All others miracles aside, at His death Jesus appears to succumb to weakness. How could His passivity accomplish redemption! History records the role of human powers. Pilate was accustomed to an unchallenged use of his authority. “Don’t you realize I have the power either to free you or crucify you?”1 He could not fully understand what Jesus meant when He responded, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”2 Yet he sensed that it was something to be reckoned with and it caused him fear. “From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free.”3
Many deaths have happened and will happen, but only this death, His death, is the sacrifice for sins. The countless sacrifices carefully numbered by the priests generation after generation now reach their obsolescence. It was the goal for which they were destined. The significance does not escape the writer to the Hebrews. “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.”4
But old habits die hard. We always prefer to do things our way- in all things- spiritual pursuits included. People sometimes try to seek comfort in the death of Christ while still rejecting its full implications. They doubt it is at the centre of existence to the extent that it gives meaning to absolutely everything. This doubt can be dressed up in all kinds of sophistication. The universe seems much too large and complex to be finally explained and governed by the crucifixion of a First Century Jewish man. In harboring this doubt modern people share the proclivities of the ancient Greeks who believed matter was eternal and the soul was trapped in the body waiting for release. Contemporary thinking resonates with such skepticism: Time passes, old events become obsolete, new ideas are embraced, things change, meaning is elusive. But original false teachings are only re-introduced with new images and there is nothing new under the sun. Human wisdom always doubts God would limit Himself to such historical circumstances.
But God did chose to define reality and meaning within such parameters. These events are historical. Their meaning is not the putty for religious theory. Christ died because you are a sinner. No other reason is finally relevant to you. Christ bore your punishment on the cross. Everything else you know is secondary to that. The law leaves you no escape. But the gospel offers you full pardon. You partake of His body and blood as a concrete expression of these truths. To trust that Christ did this out of unconditional love for you is to see God- and approach life- in a different light.
There was a sculptor who invested painstaking time and effort crafting a life-sized statue of Christ. It was considered by even the strongest critics to be a masterpiece. When it was unveiled people came and admired it from every angle and perspective. They praised the detail and skill that it displayed. But they approached it only as a work of art. The artist, however, had a different intention. He said, “If you want to see it rightly, it’s best to kneel.” This is the spiritual posture of the baptismal life.
God sees us through the challenges we encounter. Pain, doubt, fear, sickness, disappointment, confusion, apathy, and the list is endless. But on this Good Friday what takes centre stage is the resolution of our mortality. Only Christ has this power. The questions faced at the threshold of death are quickly sifted. Trivial matters immediately become irrelevant. Weightier matters come to the fore: relationships yet unreconciled, dreams still unfulfilled, hopes never realized- these things occupy the heart and mind when death draws near. But one concern dominates them all: On what basis will God be faced? What confidence do I have in His acceptance? When your own conscience threatens to desert you where will you turn?
When you are dying you want the assurance of someone who’s been there. Finally no half-way measures will do; no equivocation. There are no negotiations, no other options; the believer will pass this way. There is no other gateway, no other portal, no other entrance. When the believer reclines in death the soul completes its journey in the footsteps of Christ and there reposes until the glorification of the body. The approximations, and the guesswork, and the naïve speculations about what it really means to die can only be resolved in Him who has the power over death. For those without faith consideration of death may quickly become not only a time of intense doubt, but of frantic disillusionment and despair.
For the believer too it comes with its challenges and temptations. The Old Adam fights within us to the end. Yet we face the throne as saints declared righteous by grace. We can stand before Him illuminated in Easter glow. We need not fear what He has conquered. Christ teaches us how to die. We cannot by-pass death, but Jesus has the greater power. Equal to the Father; one with the Spirit; superior to angels; a Redeemer of mortals, Jesus the Christ died once for all. In that one death He died as if suffering innumerable deaths and immeasurable pain. Sin cannot rule Him. Satan cannot judge Him. Hell cannot contain Him. Death cannot hold Him.
Dear friends, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was unpreventable and is unrepeatable. It makes possible for us an unchanging eternity. This one event of death effects the resurrection of the many. Our participation in the death of Christ is not the same as our participation in His resurrection. When our sins are put to death in His body we are spared the pain, torment, and condemnation which He endured. But in the resurrection we will fully experience in our glorified bodies the vibrancy of His life. In death He bears the sentence. In life we enjoy the victory. His sacrifice is the commentary on all existence- for from it all who are consecrated by Him and for Him receive immortal life. Amen.
+ in nomine Jesu +
April 2 2010
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 19:10
2 John 19:11
3 John 19:12
4 Hebrews 10:11-12
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