+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: James 1:17
Theme: From Above
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Change- in-so-far-as it is a measure of decay- is an indicator of the fallenness of this existence. The Scripture says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”1 The God who creates is the same God who provides, and He is the same, again, who redeems. The fact that these truths are continually contested means the Holy Spirit has a lot of work to do before Christ returns.
All attempts at explaining the existence of the universe involve the entity of faith. The origin of the cosmos can obviously never be repeated in laboratory experiments and there were certainly no humans around to observe it. Therefore, it necessarily involves mystery. It involves, trust, conviction, and acceptance that it is beyond the rationale. One of the great delusions of our times is the belief that science can explain how the universe can to exist. But how does matter appear out of nothing? Science serves us by uncovering the mechanisms of how things work. It doesn’t attach value to the big questions. It cannot explain that which is not repeatable.
In the end we’re really left with only two possibilities; either the universe came to exist by random chance or the Almighty God created it. If it happened randomly then it has no design, no purpose, and ultimately no consistent meaning. In this scenario humans have no higher power to answer to, and conversely, no God who will be their ultimate refuge. Value and meaning in society then become purely human constructs. It is in this very direction that culture is now digressing. One need not be a Christian at all, only a deist, to see the dilemma.
Dear friends, under our own powers we are completely unable to love God, revere Him, and trust in Him above all things. Not only does it not suit the natural way we think it is diametrically opposed to our own instinctive worldview. We instinctively believe that we possess the ability to do good at our own discretion. God’s word denies this emphatically. Sin is firstly internal. Jesus says, “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that make him ‘unclean’….for from within, out of men’s hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”2 Therefore, repentance firstly concerns internal things also.
God’s law always reminds us that the rot starts within. The law always puts us back in front of the mirror. We are caused to confront our imperfections. But we are good at cosmetically covering them up; at keeping up appearances. The law is actually more powerful than a mirror. More like an X-ray machine or an MRI, it sees right into us. It gets beneath our skin and it makes us very uncomfortable. It must do this. We need a radical type of surgery. Our consciences must be driven from mindsets of self-reliance and self-service to humble repentance. We learn how to look in the spiritual mirror and see an image of ourselves that is quite different from the actual reflection.
But when God looks at us He sees clearly. He knows that no matter how hastily He looks He sees sinners. That’s why He looks at us through the cross. His sight- like rays passing through a prism- is refracted by the spectacle of His crucified Son. He sees us covered with Christ’s holiness. He observes that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. He sees Jesus first. The Scripture says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.”3
Sin is primarily internal, but the word of God is external. Believers are declared righteous, holy in God’s sight- because of the merits of Christ-as an act of mercy that takes place solely outside of themselves. The mercy of God is not contingent upon our precondition. Christianity alone truly possesses the gospel. It is good news with no strings attached. Reconciliation with God requires no contribution on the human side of the equation even in the smallest measure. Christ has done it all. He has made the sacrifice. He has paid the debt. He has demonstrated the perfect obedience. He has defeated Satan on his own terms. He has slammed shut the gates of hell. He has thrown open the gates of heaven.
With the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith comes a new beginning. This is the implication of baptism. A believer has a new perspective, a different orientation; a new purpose. But every believer is always a work in progress. There is no perfection this side of heaven. The baptized are already citizens of heaven, yet they remain sinners in need of grace. Still, believers are saints and we have great privileges.
We are truly freed by the gospel. We’re not free to sin, but free to serve. And that means your vocations matter. There is nothing that you do in faith- be it the most simple, the most tedious, the most repetitive, or the most challenging task- that is not important to someone in the body of Christ. Often that person is your closest neighbour: your spouse, your parent, your child, your friend. Maybe that act, or attitude, or prayer, is a blessing to a stranger in need or an assistance to someone half-way around the globe. But all are reflections in some way or in some measure of the love of God shown to you, His beloved.
We must be rid of the misunderstanding that only exceptional acts of Christian devotion with high visibility are a true measure of one’s faith. Faithfulness in the daily grind is far more important in God’s sight than occasional acts of generosity. The phrase daily grind refers to the necessity of grinding the grain so there would be flour to make bread. If it wasn’t ground consistently and faithfully there would be no food. Stability was at stake. Mouths had to be fed. The family had to be provided for. Spiritually we may compare it to bearing the cross. Is it easier for me to put a green note in the offering or to love the person who is particularly unlovable? The Holy Spirit leads the charge in our daily endeavor to mirror God’s love in Christ.
Dear friends, the love of God is unrelenting. He pursues us. He embraces us. He never gives up on us. He is hope in the midst of despair. He is peace in the midst of chaos. He is truth in a milieu of deception. There is no burden so heavy that the Almighty cannot lift it from us. There is no darkness so consuming that divine rays cannot penetrate it. There is no coldness so debilitating that the warmth of the Spirit cannot thaw it. There is no death so final, whether physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual, that Jesus, who is “the resurrection and the life,”4 cannot rekindle new and incorruptible life.
In Christ we have every good and perfect gift. He came from above; journeyed here below, and now lives as the bridge between time and eternity. He is the gateway between this fraying and decaying existence and the perfection that awaits all who believe. The end game is that what was previously external to you, that which you now possess by faith, that very power of God, will transform you completely into the image of Christ, the Son of God. That is the stupefying reality that awaits us at the time of the resurrection from the dead. The Scripture says that He “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”5 May God make it so for Jesus’ sake, amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
30 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 James 1:17 2 Mark 7:15, 21-23 3 Hebrews 1:3 4 John 11:25 5 Philippians 3:20
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 6:68
Theme: Where to from here? Christ!
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Moments ago we confessed our belief in the “one holy Christian and apostolic church.”1 The church is apostolic because it is grounded in the witness of those men who first became Jesus’ eye-witnesses to the world. Today we have some insight into one of the formative moments of their tutoring. The episode that began with the feeding of the multitudes now finally concludes in today’s gospel account. The long dialogue about the meaning of Jesus’ person and work comes to an end. The results are emphatic. Many find Jesus too hard to swallow. Some deem His claims to be fanatical. Others, demonic. The miracles have been convincing, but God had done miracles through the prophets in the past. The immediate lineage of Jesus was hard to grapple with: He was the son of a carpenter, a commoner. The pieces of the Messianic puzzle were not coming together clear enough for many. His ministry was becoming divisive. Misunderstanding of the mission of the Messiah contributed to the confusion.
Exercising the opportunity to test the resolve of His disciples Jesus challenges them directly. It was a key moment of confession. Would this band of fisherman have the determination to stay with their Master in the face of increasing adversity? A long journey still lay ahead of them. “‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”2 Though fearful and full of confusion the disciples nevertheless fell in line behind their Leader. The future was full of shadow, but Christ, the Light of the World, pushed back the darkness with each step according to the Scripture “Righteousness goes before Him and prepares the way for his steps.”3
We, also, are increasingly stepping into a future that is clouded in shadow. What does St. Paul say, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against…the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.”4The apostle gives us clear perspective of where we stand in relation to the powers that be. Our greatest concerns are not threats to our material well-being, our appetites for consuming the goods of this world, or some measure of comfort we seek for ourselves. Our greatest concerns relate to our spiritual security; the clarity of our confession, the certainty of Christ’s victory, the assurance of the Spirit’s presence.
These things are not possible without regular and direct contact with the word of God and the sacraments. Your hunger is not satisfied by looking at pictures of food. Your thirst is not quenched by staring at pictures of water. Recalling a memory of a nice meal you once had doesn’t address your need for food at the moment. Jesus says, “My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink.”5
Dear friends, Satan wants to deceive you about what is truly real, while still using your real world circumstances to attack you. You may have a million dollars in your retirement fund or you may be living paycheck to paycheck barley making ends meet. But Satan doesn’t care unless he can use these facts to undermine your faith. Rich and poor alike are of no account to him. He intends, by hook or by crook, to distract you, dissuade you discourage you, and dishearten you. His arrows are aflame and they are seldom off target. He knows your propensities and your weaknesses. He knows what confuses you and what makes you apathetic. He knows how to falsely appease your conscience. He knows that you always want to have your cake and eat it too.
And Satan especially knows how to twist the very commands of God. He misapplied Scripture to Jesus Himself6. The devil tries to ease our consciences when we should be convicted. Conversely, he tries to cause us angst when God says we should be at peace. How straightforward, but how difficult to love the neighbour! Any acts of kindness we do with the wrong intentions end up being sins regardless of how they are perceived by others. Anything not done out of faith is a sin. Conversely, having good intentions that we never act upon also results in failure to love our neighbour properly. The old proverb expresses it graphically, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” No wonder when Paul was grappling with this dilemma he said, “What I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord.”7
Yes, Satan knows you well. But Christ knows you better. He is your Creator, your Redeemer; and your Lord. Only the word of God can separate the sin from the sinner. Sin so pervades human nature it is an impossible exercise to distinguish between the corruption of sin and the individual. But God does precisely what for us is impossible. And He doesn’t do it remotely; He immerses Himself right into the falleness of our condition. He makes Himself vulnerable to the temptations that beset us and the attacks Satan launches at us. He bears our iniquity all the way to the cross. He allows Himself to be born in a manger so that He can be hung from a cross. He rose and He lives immortally.
There is a common misperception that baptism tidies things up spiritually for us. Tick the box and your soul is glazed-over with a cloaking device that makes it invisible to evil. In truth, after baptism is when things start to get messy. The baptized are not mollycoddled, pampered, and spoiled. They are trained, equipped, and fitted with every necessary defence. Only believers are of interest to Satan; only those marked with the blood of the Lamb. The devil doesn’t play games; he’s deadly serious.
The baptismal life is rightly understood as a cross-shaped life. It is so, not as a cliché, but as a daily struggle against temptation and sin. Forgiveness relieves the penitent from the guilt of sin but it doesn’t mean the temptation to sin no longer exists. Therefore, Christ clothes us with spiritual armor. The depiction here in Ephesians is one of the most powerful in all of Holy Scripture. Belt, breast-plate, boots, shield, helmet, and sword, representing truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God equip the believer to withstand the conflict. Of the full battle regalia mentioned, only the sword of the Spirit, the word of God is an offensive weapon. It’s the only one we need for it is wielded by the Spirit Himself.
The disciples also needed reassurance from the Lord. He promised not to leave them as orphans. He promised to give them peace. He promised a place would be prepared for them. He promised them a resurrection. We cannot walk long through the desert without being refreshed at the Jordan. We will languish in Babylon if we lose hope in the Promised Land. This place is your oasis. It is your refuge because it is the fortress of God’s word. Here you feast on the Bread of Life. His forgiveness is imparted through bread and wine- for with them you receive real food and real drink, His body and His blood given and shed for you. He fortifies us with sacred nutriment. Sometimes the journey seems long or hard, but the destination is not in doubt.
Where to from here? Lord, “You have the words of eternal life”. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
23 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 The Nicene Creed
2 John 6:67-69
3 Psalm 85:13
4 Ephesians 6:12
5 John 6:55
6 See Matthew 4:6
7 Romans 7:19, 24-25
Text: John 6:68
Theme: Where to from here? Christ!
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Moments ago we confessed our belief in the “one holy Christian and apostolic church.”1 The church is apostolic because it is grounded in the witness of those men who first became Jesus’ eye-witnesses to the world. Today we have some insight into one of the formative moments of their tutoring. The episode that began with the feeding of the multitudes now finally concludes in today’s gospel account. The long dialogue about the meaning of Jesus’ person and work comes to an end. The results are emphatic. Many find Jesus too hard to swallow. Some deem His claims to be fanatical. Others, demonic. The miracles have been convincing, but God had done miracles through the prophets in the past. The immediate lineage of Jesus was hard to grapple with: He was the son of a carpenter, a commoner. The pieces of the Messianic puzzle were not coming together clear enough for many. His ministry was becoming divisive. Misunderstanding of the mission of the Messiah contributed to the confusion.
Exercising the opportunity to test the resolve of His disciples Jesus challenges them directly. It was a key moment of confession. Would this band of fisherman have the determination to stay with their Master in the face of increasing adversity? A long journey still lay ahead of them. “‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”2 Though fearful and full of confusion the disciples nevertheless fell in line behind their Leader. The future was full of shadow, but Christ, the Light of the World, pushed back the darkness with each step according to the Scripture “Righteousness goes before Him and prepares the way for his steps.”3
We, also, are increasingly stepping into a future that is clouded in shadow. What does St. Paul say, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against…the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.”4The apostle gives us clear perspective of where we stand in relation to the powers that be. Our greatest concerns are not threats to our material well-being, our appetites for consuming the goods of this world, or some measure of comfort we seek for ourselves. Our greatest concerns relate to our spiritual security; the clarity of our confession, the certainty of Christ’s victory, the assurance of the Spirit’s presence.
These things are not possible without regular and direct contact with the word of God and the sacraments. Your hunger is not satisfied by looking at pictures of food. Your thirst is not quenched by staring at pictures of water. Recalling a memory of a nice meal you once had doesn’t address your need for food at the moment. Jesus says, “My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink.”5
Dear friends, Satan wants to deceive you about what is truly real, while still using your real world circumstances to attack you. You may have a million dollars in your retirement fund or you may be living paycheck to paycheck barley making ends meet. But Satan doesn’t care unless he can use these facts to undermine your faith. Rich and poor alike are of no account to him. He intends, by hook or by crook, to distract you, dissuade you discourage you, and dishearten you. His arrows are aflame and they are seldom off target. He knows your propensities and your weaknesses. He knows what confuses you and what makes you apathetic. He knows how to falsely appease your conscience. He knows that you always want to have your cake and eat it too.
And Satan especially knows how to twist the very commands of God. He misapplied Scripture to Jesus Himself6. The devil tries to ease our consciences when we should be convicted. Conversely, he tries to cause us angst when God says we should be at peace. How straightforward, but how difficult to love the neighbour! Any acts of kindness we do with the wrong intentions end up being sins regardless of how they are perceived by others. Anything not done out of faith is a sin. Conversely, having good intentions that we never act upon also results in failure to love our neighbour properly. The old proverb expresses it graphically, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” No wonder when Paul was grappling with this dilemma he said, “What I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord.”7
Yes, Satan knows you well. But Christ knows you better. He is your Creator, your Redeemer; and your Lord. Only the word of God can separate the sin from the sinner. Sin so pervades human nature it is an impossible exercise to distinguish between the corruption of sin and the individual. But God does precisely what for us is impossible. And He doesn’t do it remotely; He immerses Himself right into the falleness of our condition. He makes Himself vulnerable to the temptations that beset us and the attacks Satan launches at us. He bears our iniquity all the way to the cross. He allows Himself to be born in a manger so that He can be hung from a cross. He rose and He lives immortally.
There is a common misperception that baptism tidies things up spiritually for us. Tick the box and your soul is glazed-over with a cloaking device that makes it invisible to evil. In truth, after baptism is when things start to get messy. The baptized are not mollycoddled, pampered, and spoiled. They are trained, equipped, and fitted with every necessary defence. Only believers are of interest to Satan; only those marked with the blood of the Lamb. The devil doesn’t play games; he’s deadly serious.
The baptismal life is rightly understood as a cross-shaped life. It is so, not as a cliché, but as a daily struggle against temptation and sin. Forgiveness relieves the penitent from the guilt of sin but it doesn’t mean the temptation to sin no longer exists. Therefore, Christ clothes us with spiritual armor. The depiction here in Ephesians is one of the most powerful in all of Holy Scripture. Belt, breast-plate, boots, shield, helmet, and sword, representing truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God equip the believer to withstand the conflict. Of the full battle regalia mentioned, only the sword of the Spirit, the word of God is an offensive weapon. It’s the only one we need for it is wielded by the Spirit Himself.
The disciples also needed reassurance from the Lord. He promised not to leave them as orphans. He promised to give them peace. He promised a place would be prepared for them. He promised them a resurrection. We cannot walk long through the desert without being refreshed at the Jordan. We will languish in Babylon if we lose hope in the Promised Land. This place is your oasis. It is your refuge because it is the fortress of God’s word. Here you feast on the Bread of Life. His forgiveness is imparted through bread and wine- for with them you receive real food and real drink, His body and His blood given and shed for you. He fortifies us with sacred nutriment. Sometimes the journey seems long or hard, but the destination is not in doubt.
Where to from here? Lord, “You have the words of eternal life”. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
23 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 The Nicene Creed
2 John 6:67-69
3 Psalm 85:13
4 Ephesians 6:12
5 John 6:55
6 See Matthew 4:6
7 Romans 7:19, 24-25
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 6:54
Theme: Raised Up At The Last Day
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Resurrection is imminent. Christian conviction holds this unequivocally. Jesus says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”1 The life-sustaining analogy is clear and it points us to the meal of Holy Communion. The end benefit is the bodily resurrection. The “last day” began with Christ’s resurrection and it will finish when He returns. Meanwhile, the struggle for souls continues.
St. Paul says in our Scripture today that the days are evil. “Be very careful, then, how you live- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”2 If we are honest we probably have a difficult time relating to that as a fundamental premise. There are always things we would like to change; things we would like to have go more smoothly; things we have difficulties with. We have our illnesses, our anxieties, our doubts, our fractured relationships and also our broken ones too. We become worn out fighting the same battles and disheartened when hope seems to hang by a thread. We worry about personal image and the opinions of others. We fret about our capacity to meet our obligations. We wonder about the direction society as a whole is headed and what our response should be.
But do any of these things individually or even all of them collectively constitute the days as being evil? Is this meant to be a universal truth or a circumstance-dependent possibility? Are not the times we live in prosperous, enlightened and progressive? Or have we lost perspective?
Today receiving Jesus as the bread of life, the living bread, and the bread of heaven became unpalatable for the Jewish religious leaders. Possibly they could live with His teachings if the scope of his influence was carefully limited? But Christ keeps pushing the analogy until it becomes not only distasteful but even nauseating to them. It could be no other way. Jesus was not merely presenting Himself as a prophet, a messenger, or a spiritual guru. He was declaring that He was the Son of God. He was saying that apart from Him life cannot exist. He was saying that without Him all that we have and are comes crashing down; collapses into a heap never to be restored. He was saying that universe was created through Him, the cosmos is sustained by Him, and the church holds together in Him. The fire of divine wrath was quenched by Him- rescuing all who believe from the fires of hell. The power of death is overthrown by His exit from the tomb. Humanity is exalted by His entrance into heaven. Reconciliation is achieved. Forgiveness is accomplished. Grace prevails.
An increasingly secular minded society is finding Christianity unpalatable. We’re moving into an age where spiritualty is expected to be practiced privately and unobtrusively and is expected to be fluid and non-confronting with its claims. Passionate convictions and claims of objective truth are viewed with suspicion and increasingly labeled as radical. Christians should not be surprised by such attitudes. Is Christianity the “inconvenient truth”? Is it moving towards being considered the “unpalatable truth”, on its way to becoming the “intolerable truth”? Our grappling with this is inevitably public and personal.
So how do we live wisely? How do we respond? Do we just say it’s all too hard! Do we put it in the too hard basket? Bury your head in the sand. Ignore it and maybe it will go away. Hot topic issues like same-sex marriage are a touchstone, but deeper things are under threat here. Are people accountable to an Almighty Being? Is the depravity of sin recognized? Have we been cut loose from the anchors that hold us fast to a worldview that believes there is life beyond this life? Not airy-fairy spiritual entities floating off into a dream world. Not total annihilation of existence. Not some melding of our existence into a universal life-force. But, rather, concrete, definable, bodily life after death!
Many people are interested in a certain type of morality; a morality that provides public safety but is not personally restrictive. In other words, people want to be free to do what they want but to be protected from the vices of others. It is both naive and myopic to believe you can have both at once. We must stop thinking that only other people are the sinners. God sees through our hypocrisy. His condemnation for those who boldly defy His will is harsh. Do we worry about offending God as much as we worry about our own popularity? Is truth more important to us than having our own way? Are we quick to shift the blame to others while coddling our own sinful ways? Repentance isn’t just for the other person, or the world out there, it’s for us- poor, helpless sinners that we rightly confess to be.
After a prominent list of sins and vices that includes drunkenness, adultery, homosexuality, and greed St. Paul continues by saying, “And this is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”3 You are baptized! Your soul has been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Repentant sinners have been declared righteous and holy in God’s sight. Christ offers you the ultimate hope even if you feel your world is collapsing.
The prayer of the faithful, the Lord’s Prayer, concludes by asking that we be delivered from evil4. This entails everything that makes us vulnerable to the intentions of Satan and those who would selfishly exploit us. It finally includes resurrection to eternal life. In this chapter of John alone Christ mentions the bodily resurrection three times. He does so not as a speculative passing reference- a wish or possibility- but as a certainty and a promise. In Christ, the dead will be raised. There is no depth you can fall to that Christ will not lift you up.
Job puts the confession on our lips, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth.”5 You will stand with Him. Aching joints or frail limbs will be a distant memory. You will stand clothed with immortality. You will stand with no corruption or compromise of your physical or spiritual integrity. You will stand, released from sin, freed from guilt, liberated from every threat of judgment. You will stand in the presence of the Father, in the power of the Spirit, in the company of the Son. You will be raised. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
16 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 6:54
2 Ephesians 5:15
3 1 Corinthians 6:11
4 See Matthew 6:13
5 John 19:25
Text: John 6:54
Theme: Raised Up At The Last Day
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Resurrection is imminent. Christian conviction holds this unequivocally. Jesus says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”1 The life-sustaining analogy is clear and it points us to the meal of Holy Communion. The end benefit is the bodily resurrection. The “last day” began with Christ’s resurrection and it will finish when He returns. Meanwhile, the struggle for souls continues.
St. Paul says in our Scripture today that the days are evil. “Be very careful, then, how you live- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”2 If we are honest we probably have a difficult time relating to that as a fundamental premise. There are always things we would like to change; things we would like to have go more smoothly; things we have difficulties with. We have our illnesses, our anxieties, our doubts, our fractured relationships and also our broken ones too. We become worn out fighting the same battles and disheartened when hope seems to hang by a thread. We worry about personal image and the opinions of others. We fret about our capacity to meet our obligations. We wonder about the direction society as a whole is headed and what our response should be.
But do any of these things individually or even all of them collectively constitute the days as being evil? Is this meant to be a universal truth or a circumstance-dependent possibility? Are not the times we live in prosperous, enlightened and progressive? Or have we lost perspective?
Today receiving Jesus as the bread of life, the living bread, and the bread of heaven became unpalatable for the Jewish religious leaders. Possibly they could live with His teachings if the scope of his influence was carefully limited? But Christ keeps pushing the analogy until it becomes not only distasteful but even nauseating to them. It could be no other way. Jesus was not merely presenting Himself as a prophet, a messenger, or a spiritual guru. He was declaring that He was the Son of God. He was saying that apart from Him life cannot exist. He was saying that without Him all that we have and are comes crashing down; collapses into a heap never to be restored. He was saying that universe was created through Him, the cosmos is sustained by Him, and the church holds together in Him. The fire of divine wrath was quenched by Him- rescuing all who believe from the fires of hell. The power of death is overthrown by His exit from the tomb. Humanity is exalted by His entrance into heaven. Reconciliation is achieved. Forgiveness is accomplished. Grace prevails.
An increasingly secular minded society is finding Christianity unpalatable. We’re moving into an age where spiritualty is expected to be practiced privately and unobtrusively and is expected to be fluid and non-confronting with its claims. Passionate convictions and claims of objective truth are viewed with suspicion and increasingly labeled as radical. Christians should not be surprised by such attitudes. Is Christianity the “inconvenient truth”? Is it moving towards being considered the “unpalatable truth”, on its way to becoming the “intolerable truth”? Our grappling with this is inevitably public and personal.
So how do we live wisely? How do we respond? Do we just say it’s all too hard! Do we put it in the too hard basket? Bury your head in the sand. Ignore it and maybe it will go away. Hot topic issues like same-sex marriage are a touchstone, but deeper things are under threat here. Are people accountable to an Almighty Being? Is the depravity of sin recognized? Have we been cut loose from the anchors that hold us fast to a worldview that believes there is life beyond this life? Not airy-fairy spiritual entities floating off into a dream world. Not total annihilation of existence. Not some melding of our existence into a universal life-force. But, rather, concrete, definable, bodily life after death!
Many people are interested in a certain type of morality; a morality that provides public safety but is not personally restrictive. In other words, people want to be free to do what they want but to be protected from the vices of others. It is both naive and myopic to believe you can have both at once. We must stop thinking that only other people are the sinners. God sees through our hypocrisy. His condemnation for those who boldly defy His will is harsh. Do we worry about offending God as much as we worry about our own popularity? Is truth more important to us than having our own way? Are we quick to shift the blame to others while coddling our own sinful ways? Repentance isn’t just for the other person, or the world out there, it’s for us- poor, helpless sinners that we rightly confess to be.
After a prominent list of sins and vices that includes drunkenness, adultery, homosexuality, and greed St. Paul continues by saying, “And this is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”3 You are baptized! Your soul has been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Repentant sinners have been declared righteous and holy in God’s sight. Christ offers you the ultimate hope even if you feel your world is collapsing.
The prayer of the faithful, the Lord’s Prayer, concludes by asking that we be delivered from evil4. This entails everything that makes us vulnerable to the intentions of Satan and those who would selfishly exploit us. It finally includes resurrection to eternal life. In this chapter of John alone Christ mentions the bodily resurrection three times. He does so not as a speculative passing reference- a wish or possibility- but as a certainty and a promise. In Christ, the dead will be raised. There is no depth you can fall to that Christ will not lift you up.
Job puts the confession on our lips, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth.”5 You will stand with Him. Aching joints or frail limbs will be a distant memory. You will stand clothed with immortality. You will stand with no corruption or compromise of your physical or spiritual integrity. You will stand, released from sin, freed from guilt, liberated from every threat of judgment. You will stand in the presence of the Father, in the power of the Spirit, in the company of the Son. You will be raised. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
16 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 6:54
2 Ephesians 5:15
3 1 Corinthians 6:11
4 See Matthew 6:13
5 John 19:25
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 6:44
Theme: “Unless the Father…”
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Tomorrow may never come. But eternity will. Christians prepare for tomorrow, but we never assume it because God may have bigger things in store. The prayer of the faithful always includes the petition that the Lord of time and eternity come again to fulfill the promise, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”1 The coming Lord is also with us now. He greets you with words of pardon for your sins. He meets you in the sacred meal with His body and blood. He reminds you that you are His baptized.
Today the dialogue continues between Jesus, the crowds, and the Jewish leaders. They are nearing the pointy end of the discussion. Something has to give. The Jews wanted to protect their self-interests. It’s a lesson for us. We can never sacrifice the greater mission of the gospel for our own pet agendas. The Bible never guarantees the survival of an individual Christian community, a congregation, a synod, or even an entire denomination. It is entirely possible that in the future there will be no Christian presence in this place at all. One generation passes on, the next becomes apathetic, the third walks away from the faith altogether. Last century Christians here sent many missionaries overseas. Perhaps in this century still many missionaries will need to be sent here? But the Lord tells us not to panic. The gates of hell will not prevail against His church altogether.
Remember, for things that are humanly achievable God’s intervention is not necessary. God chooses to accomplish many things through human agency. He even brings new life into the world through the union of a man and a woman (Not that this makes conception and childbirth any less miraculous). But reconciliation with God is far beyond us. You will search in vain for pardon from your sins if you look only to human strength. Your quest for a clear conscience will be futile if you think it can be achieved through mortal means. Your desire to have certainty about your eternal future will be left unrealized if you (mis)place your trust in human wisdom. Jesus is daily bread. Christ wants us to know the stability of His peace.
Sin not only burdens the conscience, it begins to cause spiritual fatigue. It wears on us and saps our energy. We can’t face it in the long term just through a rush of spiritual adrenaline. Adrenaline junkies are thrill-seekers, who struggle to function if they’re not living on the edge. People are vulnerable to the same thing spiritually. We seek our fix of religion and then seek to carry on under that steam believing that it is the best way to stay connected with God. Imagine what an adrenaline-rush, what a thrill it was too see Jesus perform a miracle. That’s all well and good but we’ll soon see what happened to those who only sought Jesus for a thrill or a handout; they soon parted ways.
Faith cannot be self-sustaining otherwise it inevitably turns in on itself. It looks to sources of help other than God. A man fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. The following conversation ensued: "Is anyone up there?" "I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?" "Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer." "That's all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch." A moment of pause, then: "Is anyone else up there?"
Jesus says today, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”2 The work of God on the individual begins when the Fathers draws. This is the drawing of the Holy Spirit through the gospel. The work comes to completion when the Son resurrects according to the promise “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”3
The Lord unwillingly gives us over to judgment. He must do this to crush our arrogant spirit. He must convict the sinner who denies they have any sin; the transgressor who treats lightly His transgressions. Our hardened hearts must be broken with the hammer blows of His indictment. God does this earnestly but not joyfully. He passionately desires our salvation. He says in Isaiah, “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, say the Lord your Redeemer.”4 He endured suffering and death for you. He rose so that you could share in His life.
Even as we participate in His life, we share that life with others. Our relationships are governed accordingly. The apostle says today, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs…”5 Dear friends, imagine how public discourse would change if all unwholesome talk ceased! We might have long pauses and even periods of complete silence! What about in our private conversations? What if we considered the well-being of others before we spoke? St. Paul continues, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”6
Is there a danger the grace of God will be abused? Absolutely! Like any gift of unconditional generosity, the holy promises of God can be exploited. They can be high-jacked and twisted and employed for selfish means. We should expect the same reactions when we love unconditionally. But through acts of giving and forgiving the Holy Spirit can break through hearts of stone.
Christ says He is the living bread. He is life-giving, soul-sustaining, death-defying, pure and unadulterated mercy incarnate. He is no anonymous martyr. He is your Saviour. Dear friends, Jesus Christ has already lain down in your grave. He spent only a short time there, but in that short time He has robbed your grave of its power. It will now be nothing more than a resting place for your physical frame. He has gone ahead of you into the heavenly realms. He says, “I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.”7
We have this life already. We are only waiting- learning now to appreciate the divine mysteries- until the scales fall from our eyes. No one will ever be able to explain how the body and blood of Christ are present in and with mere bread and wine in Holy Communion. But no one will be able to explain how God created the universe either. True mysteries require faith. God does not and will not fail us. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
9 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Revelation 21:4
2 John 6:44
3 Philippians 1:6
4 Isaiah 54:8
5 Ephesians 4:29
6 Ephesians 4:31-32
7 John 6:47
Text: John 6:44
Theme: “Unless the Father…”
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Tomorrow may never come. But eternity will. Christians prepare for tomorrow, but we never assume it because God may have bigger things in store. The prayer of the faithful always includes the petition that the Lord of time and eternity come again to fulfill the promise, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”1 The coming Lord is also with us now. He greets you with words of pardon for your sins. He meets you in the sacred meal with His body and blood. He reminds you that you are His baptized.
Today the dialogue continues between Jesus, the crowds, and the Jewish leaders. They are nearing the pointy end of the discussion. Something has to give. The Jews wanted to protect their self-interests. It’s a lesson for us. We can never sacrifice the greater mission of the gospel for our own pet agendas. The Bible never guarantees the survival of an individual Christian community, a congregation, a synod, or even an entire denomination. It is entirely possible that in the future there will be no Christian presence in this place at all. One generation passes on, the next becomes apathetic, the third walks away from the faith altogether. Last century Christians here sent many missionaries overseas. Perhaps in this century still many missionaries will need to be sent here? But the Lord tells us not to panic. The gates of hell will not prevail against His church altogether.
Remember, for things that are humanly achievable God’s intervention is not necessary. God chooses to accomplish many things through human agency. He even brings new life into the world through the union of a man and a woman (Not that this makes conception and childbirth any less miraculous). But reconciliation with God is far beyond us. You will search in vain for pardon from your sins if you look only to human strength. Your quest for a clear conscience will be futile if you think it can be achieved through mortal means. Your desire to have certainty about your eternal future will be left unrealized if you (mis)place your trust in human wisdom. Jesus is daily bread. Christ wants us to know the stability of His peace.
Sin not only burdens the conscience, it begins to cause spiritual fatigue. It wears on us and saps our energy. We can’t face it in the long term just through a rush of spiritual adrenaline. Adrenaline junkies are thrill-seekers, who struggle to function if they’re not living on the edge. People are vulnerable to the same thing spiritually. We seek our fix of religion and then seek to carry on under that steam believing that it is the best way to stay connected with God. Imagine what an adrenaline-rush, what a thrill it was too see Jesus perform a miracle. That’s all well and good but we’ll soon see what happened to those who only sought Jesus for a thrill or a handout; they soon parted ways.
Faith cannot be self-sustaining otherwise it inevitably turns in on itself. It looks to sources of help other than God. A man fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. The following conversation ensued: "Is anyone up there?" "I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?" "Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer." "That's all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch." A moment of pause, then: "Is anyone else up there?"
Jesus says today, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”2 The work of God on the individual begins when the Fathers draws. This is the drawing of the Holy Spirit through the gospel. The work comes to completion when the Son resurrects according to the promise “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”3
The Lord unwillingly gives us over to judgment. He must do this to crush our arrogant spirit. He must convict the sinner who denies they have any sin; the transgressor who treats lightly His transgressions. Our hardened hearts must be broken with the hammer blows of His indictment. God does this earnestly but not joyfully. He passionately desires our salvation. He says in Isaiah, “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, say the Lord your Redeemer.”4 He endured suffering and death for you. He rose so that you could share in His life.
Even as we participate in His life, we share that life with others. Our relationships are governed accordingly. The apostle says today, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs…”5 Dear friends, imagine how public discourse would change if all unwholesome talk ceased! We might have long pauses and even periods of complete silence! What about in our private conversations? What if we considered the well-being of others before we spoke? St. Paul continues, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”6
Is there a danger the grace of God will be abused? Absolutely! Like any gift of unconditional generosity, the holy promises of God can be exploited. They can be high-jacked and twisted and employed for selfish means. We should expect the same reactions when we love unconditionally. But through acts of giving and forgiving the Holy Spirit can break through hearts of stone.
Christ says He is the living bread. He is life-giving, soul-sustaining, death-defying, pure and unadulterated mercy incarnate. He is no anonymous martyr. He is your Saviour. Dear friends, Jesus Christ has already lain down in your grave. He spent only a short time there, but in that short time He has robbed your grave of its power. It will now be nothing more than a resting place for your physical frame. He has gone ahead of you into the heavenly realms. He says, “I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.”7
We have this life already. We are only waiting- learning now to appreciate the divine mysteries- until the scales fall from our eyes. No one will ever be able to explain how the body and blood of Christ are present in and with mere bread and wine in Holy Communion. But no one will be able to explain how God created the universe either. True mysteries require faith. God does not and will not fail us. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
9 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Revelation 21:4
2 John 6:44
3 Philippians 1:6
4 Isaiah 54:8
5 Ephesians 4:29
6 Ephesians 4:31-32
7 John 6:47
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 6:29
Theme: Divine Work
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
They wanted more of Jesus. The phenomenon of people flocking to Christ would seem to be the ideal situation. But their motives were complex and confused. We continue this week with the storyline of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the crowds. The next day they track Him down on the other side of the lake. They were surprised He had gotten so far away. Without even as much as a “Hello!” Jesus addresses their motives. “I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”1 And so begins a lengthy exchange that ends with many parting ways with the Breadwinner who seemed more concerned about spiritual food.
But first they make some very relevant enquiries of the Lord. “What must we do to do the works God requires?”2 They were searching for more detail on what it would mean to be a follower of Christ. What were the obligations? What would it cost them? We might expect Jesus to tell them, as He did elsewhere, to love God wholeheartedly and the neighbour sacrificially. Those are the requirements of the law. But what does He say here? “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”3 The work of God is to believe.
Dear friends, the hardest part- of Christianity- is the believing; the doing follows as a matter of course. Now you might tend to disagree, claiming your faith is simple; you just believe what God says. But Satan is busy like a skilled attorney presenting “hard” evidence to undermine your faith. He’s always raising the question within us, “What’s in it for me?” What is the most damning expression of self-centredness? It’s not necessarily the crass way in which we fail in those outward acts of doing kind things for others. The most incriminating evidence of self-focus is the belief that we’ve done enough, or we’re good enough to please God; what’s more, that we’d like praise and recognition for it. In truth, we’re no longer trusting in God at all because we don’t need His grace; we don’t believe He’ll really provide.
There is a long and infamous history illustrating how quickly people lose faith. The Psalmist says this about the Israelites in the desert, “They continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, ‘Can God spread a table in the desert?’”4 The Lord showed Amos a vision of a plumb line, a builder’s tool to measure the straightness of a wall. Amos said, “This is what He showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.”5 But the house of Israel had become a crooked structure. They had departed from the standard of true wisdom. They had to be brought back true-to-plumb lest they come crashing to their end like a structure toppling off its foundation. And so John the Baptist came re-publishing the words of Isaiah to prepare for the coming of the Christ, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him…the crooked roads shall become straight, and the rough ways smooth.”6
The hardest thing is to believe but God doesn’t leave us hanging. Personal faith is a work of the Holy Spirit that enables an individual to trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. Sometimes this is called saving faith. Faith is the vehicle, the conduit to Christ. Faith also has content. Faith must have an object, something, someone, we believe in. Faith itself doesn’t save us; Christ saves us. Our trust is not generic; it has a specific point of reference: The crucified, risen, and living Jesus and all that He teaches. It’s not quite so simple as to say that the full content of faith is the person of Christ Himself. All the necessary implications are included.
Why? Because faith desires to be obedient. It dares to take God at His word. Consider the relationship between a parent and child, one built on trust. We might say the child has faith in the parent. But if a child has a personal relationship with a parent that excludes the provision of daily needs, protection from danger, and participation in the inheritance, then that relationship is significantly compromised and no longer comprises a healthy relationship. Its content has been truncated. The relationship is incomplete or distorted if the child doesn’t honour and obey the parent and their instruction. The same holds for our faith in Christ. It’s a package deal.
So, your faith is not immune to scrutiny. What does the Scripture say? “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”7 Last week Jesus questioned Philip about the multitudes only to test his faith.8 We are all likely to have beliefs that involve felicitous incongruity. That is, we happily believe things that are inconsistent with the teaching of God and reality. It’s not even uncommon to unwittingly believe things that are mutually exclusive. Part of Christian maturity is recognizing whether these are trivial matters or serious departures from biblical truth.
The dynamic of faith is well-defined biblically, and it is decisive. If the matter under consideration can be accomplished by human means then it doesn’t require faith. God doesn’t require faith in things that are humanly reasonable. It’s when we come up against impossibilities that faith is needed. We tend to play probabilities out to the limit, sometimes based on evidence, other times based on hearsay. It doesn’t take faith to believe you will eventually win the lottery; you’re simply playing probabilities, as remote as they may be.
The same is not true of our trust in Christ. Resurrection from the dead is beyond mathematical or biological probability. The forgiveness of sins is not a matter of human ingenuity. Rescue from the accusations of Satan cannot be reasonably achieved through human effort. These things require divine intervention. Miraculous, yes! But not simply as isolated interventions- a healing here, and a fortuitous rescue there- but as the entirety of God’s divine embrace in His love for the world. The God-in-the-flesh Messiah reconciles us to the heavenly Father so holistically we live in two over-lapping worlds at once. This is the reality of our faith.
This Christ was nailed to the cross for your sins. He suffered the harrowing horrors of hell to spare you from its devastation. He thwarted death in His resurrection so that you could be raised spiritually now and bodily on the Last Day. You are baptized into His death and you participate in the power of His resurrection. You share in His life through the sacred meal of Holy Communion. All of these are blessings and certainties that you possess through faith. This faith radically reorients your life. The apostle says it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”9
In binding you to Christ faith also frees you to serve others without fear. The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 7 meters. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that fear traps us in. Dear friends, we are not ruled by fear because Christ has overcome. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
2 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 6:26-27 2 John 6:28 3 John 6:29
4 Psalm 78:17-19 5 Amos 7:7 6 Luke 3:4-5
7 2 Corinthians 13:5 8 See John 6:6 9 Galatians 2:20
Text: John 6:29
Theme: Divine Work
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
They wanted more of Jesus. The phenomenon of people flocking to Christ would seem to be the ideal situation. But their motives were complex and confused. We continue this week with the storyline of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the crowds. The next day they track Him down on the other side of the lake. They were surprised He had gotten so far away. Without even as much as a “Hello!” Jesus addresses their motives. “I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”1 And so begins a lengthy exchange that ends with many parting ways with the Breadwinner who seemed more concerned about spiritual food.
But first they make some very relevant enquiries of the Lord. “What must we do to do the works God requires?”2 They were searching for more detail on what it would mean to be a follower of Christ. What were the obligations? What would it cost them? We might expect Jesus to tell them, as He did elsewhere, to love God wholeheartedly and the neighbour sacrificially. Those are the requirements of the law. But what does He say here? “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”3 The work of God is to believe.
Dear friends, the hardest part- of Christianity- is the believing; the doing follows as a matter of course. Now you might tend to disagree, claiming your faith is simple; you just believe what God says. But Satan is busy like a skilled attorney presenting “hard” evidence to undermine your faith. He’s always raising the question within us, “What’s in it for me?” What is the most damning expression of self-centredness? It’s not necessarily the crass way in which we fail in those outward acts of doing kind things for others. The most incriminating evidence of self-focus is the belief that we’ve done enough, or we’re good enough to please God; what’s more, that we’d like praise and recognition for it. In truth, we’re no longer trusting in God at all because we don’t need His grace; we don’t believe He’ll really provide.
There is a long and infamous history illustrating how quickly people lose faith. The Psalmist says this about the Israelites in the desert, “They continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, ‘Can God spread a table in the desert?’”4 The Lord showed Amos a vision of a plumb line, a builder’s tool to measure the straightness of a wall. Amos said, “This is what He showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.”5 But the house of Israel had become a crooked structure. They had departed from the standard of true wisdom. They had to be brought back true-to-plumb lest they come crashing to their end like a structure toppling off its foundation. And so John the Baptist came re-publishing the words of Isaiah to prepare for the coming of the Christ, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him…the crooked roads shall become straight, and the rough ways smooth.”6
The hardest thing is to believe but God doesn’t leave us hanging. Personal faith is a work of the Holy Spirit that enables an individual to trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. Sometimes this is called saving faith. Faith is the vehicle, the conduit to Christ. Faith also has content. Faith must have an object, something, someone, we believe in. Faith itself doesn’t save us; Christ saves us. Our trust is not generic; it has a specific point of reference: The crucified, risen, and living Jesus and all that He teaches. It’s not quite so simple as to say that the full content of faith is the person of Christ Himself. All the necessary implications are included.
Why? Because faith desires to be obedient. It dares to take God at His word. Consider the relationship between a parent and child, one built on trust. We might say the child has faith in the parent. But if a child has a personal relationship with a parent that excludes the provision of daily needs, protection from danger, and participation in the inheritance, then that relationship is significantly compromised and no longer comprises a healthy relationship. Its content has been truncated. The relationship is incomplete or distorted if the child doesn’t honour and obey the parent and their instruction. The same holds for our faith in Christ. It’s a package deal.
So, your faith is not immune to scrutiny. What does the Scripture say? “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”7 Last week Jesus questioned Philip about the multitudes only to test his faith.8 We are all likely to have beliefs that involve felicitous incongruity. That is, we happily believe things that are inconsistent with the teaching of God and reality. It’s not even uncommon to unwittingly believe things that are mutually exclusive. Part of Christian maturity is recognizing whether these are trivial matters or serious departures from biblical truth.
The dynamic of faith is well-defined biblically, and it is decisive. If the matter under consideration can be accomplished by human means then it doesn’t require faith. God doesn’t require faith in things that are humanly reasonable. It’s when we come up against impossibilities that faith is needed. We tend to play probabilities out to the limit, sometimes based on evidence, other times based on hearsay. It doesn’t take faith to believe you will eventually win the lottery; you’re simply playing probabilities, as remote as they may be.
The same is not true of our trust in Christ. Resurrection from the dead is beyond mathematical or biological probability. The forgiveness of sins is not a matter of human ingenuity. Rescue from the accusations of Satan cannot be reasonably achieved through human effort. These things require divine intervention. Miraculous, yes! But not simply as isolated interventions- a healing here, and a fortuitous rescue there- but as the entirety of God’s divine embrace in His love for the world. The God-in-the-flesh Messiah reconciles us to the heavenly Father so holistically we live in two over-lapping worlds at once. This is the reality of our faith.
This Christ was nailed to the cross for your sins. He suffered the harrowing horrors of hell to spare you from its devastation. He thwarted death in His resurrection so that you could be raised spiritually now and bodily on the Last Day. You are baptized into His death and you participate in the power of His resurrection. You share in His life through the sacred meal of Holy Communion. All of these are blessings and certainties that you possess through faith. This faith radically reorients your life. The apostle says it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”9
In binding you to Christ faith also frees you to serve others without fear. The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 7 meters. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that fear traps us in. Dear friends, we are not ruled by fear because Christ has overcome. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
2 August, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 6:26-27 2 John 6:28 3 John 6:29
4 Psalm 78:17-19 5 Amos 7:7 6 Luke 3:4-5
7 2 Corinthians 13:5 8 See John 6:6 9 Galatians 2:20
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: John 6:15
Theme: Maintenance and Monarchy
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Miracles aren’t always dazzling. God often tends to our needs discreetly. A moment of reflection will likely enable you to recall times when God quietly surprised you with His kindness. The subtlety and simplicity of some miracles of Christ do not negate their witness to His divinity. The multiplication of the loaves and the fishes was not flashy or eye-catching. Many would not have been near enough to Jesus to witness it visually. The exact logistics of it have not been revealed to us. Nevertheless- hapless, helpless, and hungry- the crowd was served with bread by Jesus, the Bread of Life. Advertising of the sort, “Come and hear Jesus, all meals included!” was not even necessary. They were drawn to the authority of His teaching and His command over the power of sin. Their needs were provided for.
When we pray for our daily bread we are asking for more than the means to fill our bellies. We are asking for God to make us grateful even as we remember those who go hungry. We are praying for trust to believe that God will provide according to His good and gracious will. The petition relates not just to food, but to all the material possessions we need in this temporal life. The Scriptures call on us to keep a balanced perspective on how we value the things of this life in comparison with the treasures of the life to come. It’s a perspective not shared by the unbelieving world.
A man named John Wendel and his sisters were some of the most miserly people ever known. Although they had received a huge inheritance from their parents, they spent very little of it and did all they could to simply hoard their wealth. John was able to influence five of his six sisters never to marry, and they lived in the same house in New York City for 50 years. When the last sister died in 1931, her estate was valued at more than $100 million. In 1931! Her only dress was one that she had made herself, and she had worn it for 25 years.
What a contrast to way Christ encourages us to love our neighbour selflessly! Jesus says, “If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ [unbelievers] lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.”1 The Lord introduces something pretty radical here. It tests the integrity of our trust in Him. He isn’t encouraging believers to be irresponsible. He’s teaching us to be unrestricted in the manner and intent of our generosity.
Dear friends, when it comes to our manner and our intents we should quickly recognize our need for humility. This is where dealing with our sin becomes thorny. What makes you think your sin is any less offensive than the next person’s? Do you judge your own motives to be more pure? We cannot view our own sins objectively. Our assessment is skewed by our participation. A vision-impaired person cannot see a clear reflection in a mirror. A sinner cannot accurately gage the seriousness of his or her own sins. But God doesn’t call on us to quantify. He calls on us to repent. He calls on us to believe what the Spirit says, “There is no one righteous, not even one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”2 He convicts us of trying to make excuses and exposes all of our cover-ups. Perhaps we’ve hidden them from others- our selfish motives, our hatreds, our greed, our adulteries, our idolatries- but everything is transparent before the Almighty. His omniscience has not been compromised. He sees all.
The feeding of the multitudes caused undesirable consequences for Jesus. He wasn’t an earthly ruler trying to gather subjects. The Scripture says, “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.”3 Now this gives us more than enough evidence to establish the fact that many had misunderstood the purpose of Jesus’ miracles. He wasn’t trying to establish a Utopia on earth. Attempts at achieving Utopia are the perennial interest of many who believe this temporal life is an end in itself. The reaction of the people also gives us reason to question motives. They wanted to be maintained in their daily provisions and what easier way than making Christ their monarch?
It is, of course, human nature to want to take shortcuts; to find the easy way out. Stress makes the temptation greater. Maybe few people know of the temptations you struggle with, the doubts you harbor, the anxieties that beset you? Perhaps no one at all knows, save, God alone? Maybe you even feel like a hypocrite sometimes- presenting an outward appearance of stability while inwardly you are full of turmoil? May you wonder if your problems, big or small, will ever be resolved? Maybe you wonder, like some in the crowd, where your next meal is coming from, or at least, how the bills will get paid? Each day is a gift. We learn from the past. We commit the future to God’s keeping. We live in the present. While we responsibly make plans for the future we also remember that God may call us out of this world at any time.
We remember Christ is always present with us. We remember there is a cross. That is the crux of the matter. It is final. To replace the meaning of the cross, the event of redemption with some other source of hope, is to irreparably damage the one truth which is the foundation of our salvation. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the very substance of the Good News. The gospel is not mere information. The gospel contains information, but the gospel is the power of God, the means by which He not only communicates, but by which He transforms hearts and minds with His truth. It is the source of hope and the cause of joy.
It changes our understanding of God’s presence and work among us and within us. We do not come to Holy Communion to elevate ourselves through spiritual meditation to Christ in heaven. The altar is not merely a focal point for our thoughts and piety. Here at the altar Christ descends to meet us in the sacrament. He makes Himself present through His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. He meets us here as the crucified, risen, ascended, and coming Christ; transcending time and space.
The meal of Holy Communion belongs more to the future than it does to the past. It impacts us in the present precisely because the salvation secured at the cross frees us from the condemnation of our sins even now, as the Scripture says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”4 But it is a foretaste of the feast to come; the heavenly banquet. It is the ongoing feast for the baptized.
Christ is the King who serves us. His compassion knows no bounds. The apostle makes this request which is fittingly ours, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”5 Dear friends, we will never exhaust the treasure of God’s riches in Christ; not in a thousand lifetimes, not in eternity. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
26 July, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 6:34-35
2 Romans 3:10, 23
3 John 6:15
4 Romans 8:1
5 Ephesians 3:17-18
Text: John 6:15
Theme: Maintenance and Monarchy
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Miracles aren’t always dazzling. God often tends to our needs discreetly. A moment of reflection will likely enable you to recall times when God quietly surprised you with His kindness. The subtlety and simplicity of some miracles of Christ do not negate their witness to His divinity. The multiplication of the loaves and the fishes was not flashy or eye-catching. Many would not have been near enough to Jesus to witness it visually. The exact logistics of it have not been revealed to us. Nevertheless- hapless, helpless, and hungry- the crowd was served with bread by Jesus, the Bread of Life. Advertising of the sort, “Come and hear Jesus, all meals included!” was not even necessary. They were drawn to the authority of His teaching and His command over the power of sin. Their needs were provided for.
When we pray for our daily bread we are asking for more than the means to fill our bellies. We are asking for God to make us grateful even as we remember those who go hungry. We are praying for trust to believe that God will provide according to His good and gracious will. The petition relates not just to food, but to all the material possessions we need in this temporal life. The Scriptures call on us to keep a balanced perspective on how we value the things of this life in comparison with the treasures of the life to come. It’s a perspective not shared by the unbelieving world.
A man named John Wendel and his sisters were some of the most miserly people ever known. Although they had received a huge inheritance from their parents, they spent very little of it and did all they could to simply hoard their wealth. John was able to influence five of his six sisters never to marry, and they lived in the same house in New York City for 50 years. When the last sister died in 1931, her estate was valued at more than $100 million. In 1931! Her only dress was one that she had made herself, and she had worn it for 25 years.
What a contrast to way Christ encourages us to love our neighbour selflessly! Jesus says, “If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ [unbelievers] lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.”1 The Lord introduces something pretty radical here. It tests the integrity of our trust in Him. He isn’t encouraging believers to be irresponsible. He’s teaching us to be unrestricted in the manner and intent of our generosity.
Dear friends, when it comes to our manner and our intents we should quickly recognize our need for humility. This is where dealing with our sin becomes thorny. What makes you think your sin is any less offensive than the next person’s? Do you judge your own motives to be more pure? We cannot view our own sins objectively. Our assessment is skewed by our participation. A vision-impaired person cannot see a clear reflection in a mirror. A sinner cannot accurately gage the seriousness of his or her own sins. But God doesn’t call on us to quantify. He calls on us to repent. He calls on us to believe what the Spirit says, “There is no one righteous, not even one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”2 He convicts us of trying to make excuses and exposes all of our cover-ups. Perhaps we’ve hidden them from others- our selfish motives, our hatreds, our greed, our adulteries, our idolatries- but everything is transparent before the Almighty. His omniscience has not been compromised. He sees all.
The feeding of the multitudes caused undesirable consequences for Jesus. He wasn’t an earthly ruler trying to gather subjects. The Scripture says, “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.”3 Now this gives us more than enough evidence to establish the fact that many had misunderstood the purpose of Jesus’ miracles. He wasn’t trying to establish a Utopia on earth. Attempts at achieving Utopia are the perennial interest of many who believe this temporal life is an end in itself. The reaction of the people also gives us reason to question motives. They wanted to be maintained in their daily provisions and what easier way than making Christ their monarch?
It is, of course, human nature to want to take shortcuts; to find the easy way out. Stress makes the temptation greater. Maybe few people know of the temptations you struggle with, the doubts you harbor, the anxieties that beset you? Perhaps no one at all knows, save, God alone? Maybe you even feel like a hypocrite sometimes- presenting an outward appearance of stability while inwardly you are full of turmoil? May you wonder if your problems, big or small, will ever be resolved? Maybe you wonder, like some in the crowd, where your next meal is coming from, or at least, how the bills will get paid? Each day is a gift. We learn from the past. We commit the future to God’s keeping. We live in the present. While we responsibly make plans for the future we also remember that God may call us out of this world at any time.
We remember Christ is always present with us. We remember there is a cross. That is the crux of the matter. It is final. To replace the meaning of the cross, the event of redemption with some other source of hope, is to irreparably damage the one truth which is the foundation of our salvation. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the very substance of the Good News. The gospel is not mere information. The gospel contains information, but the gospel is the power of God, the means by which He not only communicates, but by which He transforms hearts and minds with His truth. It is the source of hope and the cause of joy.
It changes our understanding of God’s presence and work among us and within us. We do not come to Holy Communion to elevate ourselves through spiritual meditation to Christ in heaven. The altar is not merely a focal point for our thoughts and piety. Here at the altar Christ descends to meet us in the sacrament. He makes Himself present through His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. He meets us here as the crucified, risen, ascended, and coming Christ; transcending time and space.
The meal of Holy Communion belongs more to the future than it does to the past. It impacts us in the present precisely because the salvation secured at the cross frees us from the condemnation of our sins even now, as the Scripture says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”4 But it is a foretaste of the feast to come; the heavenly banquet. It is the ongoing feast for the baptized.
Christ is the King who serves us. His compassion knows no bounds. The apostle makes this request which is fittingly ours, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”5 Dear friends, we will never exhaust the treasure of God’s riches in Christ; not in a thousand lifetimes, not in eternity. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
26 July, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 6:34-35
2 Romans 3:10, 23
3 John 6:15
4 Romans 8:1
5 Ephesians 3:17-18
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost (B) 2015
+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Mark 6:34
Theme: God Among Us
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
“He began teaching them many things.”1 That was the response of Jesus to the crowds needing compassion. Compassion is a particularly divine quality. God has a corner on the market. To the extent that humans also display compassion they are reflecting the image of God. Pure compassion with no compromises, no doubts, and no regrets exists in Christ alone. He makes the compassion of God tangible to sinners, though often in promissory form. All of His oaths are true regardless of the evidence we experience to the contrary. We may suffer, but He embraces our suffering, absorbs it into His, and frees us from its final power.
The short descriptions of today’s gospel narrative are characteristic of Jesus’ ministry.
“Wherever He went- into villages, towns or countryside- they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged Him to let them touch even the edge of His cloak, and all who touched Him were healed.”2 It sounds like hyperbole; exaggeration for the sake of communication. But it was the concrete experience of those who came into contact with Jesus. His power healed them. His compassion cured them. His presence freed them. He was greater than Solomon; more than a prophet even though most didn’t yet understand He was the Redeemer of the world. The cross was still looming. The resurrection was still to come.
There are many today who take leave of Jesus right there are the end of Mark Chapter 6. That is, they part ways with the One they believe only to be an itinerant healer of a by-gone age. For the people of Jesus day too, the magnetism of His personality and power would soon come into tension with the broader implications of being His disciple. Core convictions were at stake. Crosses were required to be carried; self-determination was required to be sacrificed. When push came to shove Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “‘You do not want to leave too, do you?...Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”3
Dear friends, the sick and the suffering were drawn to Jesus out of necessity. They recognized their need for help. Sinners, however, often don’t recognize their spiritual sickness. We go on pretending or believing we are healthy; able to manage on our own or by other means. Opposing God’s will becomes problematic for many only when they get tangled in the consequences. God certainly uses the circumstances to chastise us, but He desires a deeper basis for repentance. He desires that we properly fear transgressing His word. Do you hesitate to speak falsehood because of the trouble it could get you into or because you believe it would dishonor God? Do you refrain from stealing because of the embarrassment or punishment of getting caught or do you believe following God’s commands serves the well-being of all? Do you try to justify yourself or do you look for God’s justification?
Luther was concerned about being justified- in the truest spiritual sense. It was vitally important to know how one could be accounted righteous before God. Did it require good works? Were good intentions a necessity? If we gave our best effort would God accept that and supply what was lacking? Or was faith sufficient? Luther’s concern that every sinner know unequivocally that God is appeased only through the sacrifice of Christ; that His wrath is turned away only by the ransom-price paid on the cross; that the mercy of God is received only by faith, is still relevant. There is no other way for sin to be atoned for.
But today the questions are being asked differently. People are looking for acceptance from God. They are looking for certainty that they are connected with Him. But they tend to want that connection on their own terms. They want to participate in divine things, things that transcend the mundaneness which characterizes much of this life, but they don’t want to be constrained by powers greater than themselves. There is little appetite for truth. Passion for it is declining significantly within the church. Christ must be savvy to the thinking of the world to learn how to best address these realities.
Our wisdom and strength must continue to be sourced from the only reliable place. We gather here because we believe that here the eternal truth of God is spoken. We believe that He has ordered things for our well-being. We believe that Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. We believe He is the same yesterday and today and forever. He died and rose again for us and for our salvation. There is no other Christ than the Christ of the Scriptures. There is no other Saviour than the one disclosed to us in the pages of Holy Writ. The faith we have through the gift of the Holy Spirit is faith in the Christ of the Bible. Jesus does not walk off the pages of Holy Scripture into a relationship with us constructed on another foundation. He does not reimage or reinvent Himself for the appetites of a different age.
Time, distance, space- these are not barriers to Christ’s presence among us. Paul says today that the church is “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.”4 “In Him [Christ] you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.”5 The baptized people of God are the body of Christ on this earth. In baptism we participate in the life of the triune God. The Bible says, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.”6 How mind-blowing is this promise! The Son of God and the Father Himself vow to dwell with the believer. The reality that God dwells with you! How does that strike you? It is daunting. It is exhilarating. You are His temple. The One who heaven and earth cannot contain; the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Lord God of Sabaoth- near to you in your frailty!
We know the promises of His presence are common in the Bible. “Where two or three come together in My name, there am I with them.”7 “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”8 When Christ was seated at the right hand of God it means not only that He was honoured with the highest possible status; it means that now also in His humanity He rules and is present everywhere according to His good and gracious will. In this way He is available to us in Holy Communion. In it He offers us a healing of higher order than the healing He provided for the sick, the blind, and the lame. He is a God of compassion. His compassion frees us to serve others because it binds our sin for all eternity. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
19 July, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Mark 6:34
2 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
3 John 6:67-68
4 Ephesians 2:20
5 Ephesians 2:22
6 John 14:23
7 Matthew 18:20
8 Matthew 28:20
Text: Mark 6:34
Theme: God Among Us
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
“He began teaching them many things.”1 That was the response of Jesus to the crowds needing compassion. Compassion is a particularly divine quality. God has a corner on the market. To the extent that humans also display compassion they are reflecting the image of God. Pure compassion with no compromises, no doubts, and no regrets exists in Christ alone. He makes the compassion of God tangible to sinners, though often in promissory form. All of His oaths are true regardless of the evidence we experience to the contrary. We may suffer, but He embraces our suffering, absorbs it into His, and frees us from its final power.
The short descriptions of today’s gospel narrative are characteristic of Jesus’ ministry.
“Wherever He went- into villages, towns or countryside- they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged Him to let them touch even the edge of His cloak, and all who touched Him were healed.”2 It sounds like hyperbole; exaggeration for the sake of communication. But it was the concrete experience of those who came into contact with Jesus. His power healed them. His compassion cured them. His presence freed them. He was greater than Solomon; more than a prophet even though most didn’t yet understand He was the Redeemer of the world. The cross was still looming. The resurrection was still to come.
There are many today who take leave of Jesus right there are the end of Mark Chapter 6. That is, they part ways with the One they believe only to be an itinerant healer of a by-gone age. For the people of Jesus day too, the magnetism of His personality and power would soon come into tension with the broader implications of being His disciple. Core convictions were at stake. Crosses were required to be carried; self-determination was required to be sacrificed. When push came to shove Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “‘You do not want to leave too, do you?...Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”3
Dear friends, the sick and the suffering were drawn to Jesus out of necessity. They recognized their need for help. Sinners, however, often don’t recognize their spiritual sickness. We go on pretending or believing we are healthy; able to manage on our own or by other means. Opposing God’s will becomes problematic for many only when they get tangled in the consequences. God certainly uses the circumstances to chastise us, but He desires a deeper basis for repentance. He desires that we properly fear transgressing His word. Do you hesitate to speak falsehood because of the trouble it could get you into or because you believe it would dishonor God? Do you refrain from stealing because of the embarrassment or punishment of getting caught or do you believe following God’s commands serves the well-being of all? Do you try to justify yourself or do you look for God’s justification?
Luther was concerned about being justified- in the truest spiritual sense. It was vitally important to know how one could be accounted righteous before God. Did it require good works? Were good intentions a necessity? If we gave our best effort would God accept that and supply what was lacking? Or was faith sufficient? Luther’s concern that every sinner know unequivocally that God is appeased only through the sacrifice of Christ; that His wrath is turned away only by the ransom-price paid on the cross; that the mercy of God is received only by faith, is still relevant. There is no other way for sin to be atoned for.
But today the questions are being asked differently. People are looking for acceptance from God. They are looking for certainty that they are connected with Him. But they tend to want that connection on their own terms. They want to participate in divine things, things that transcend the mundaneness which characterizes much of this life, but they don’t want to be constrained by powers greater than themselves. There is little appetite for truth. Passion for it is declining significantly within the church. Christ must be savvy to the thinking of the world to learn how to best address these realities.
Our wisdom and strength must continue to be sourced from the only reliable place. We gather here because we believe that here the eternal truth of God is spoken. We believe that He has ordered things for our well-being. We believe that Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. We believe He is the same yesterday and today and forever. He died and rose again for us and for our salvation. There is no other Christ than the Christ of the Scriptures. There is no other Saviour than the one disclosed to us in the pages of Holy Writ. The faith we have through the gift of the Holy Spirit is faith in the Christ of the Bible. Jesus does not walk off the pages of Holy Scripture into a relationship with us constructed on another foundation. He does not reimage or reinvent Himself for the appetites of a different age.
Time, distance, space- these are not barriers to Christ’s presence among us. Paul says today that the church is “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.”4 “In Him [Christ] you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.”5 The baptized people of God are the body of Christ on this earth. In baptism we participate in the life of the triune God. The Bible says, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.”6 How mind-blowing is this promise! The Son of God and the Father Himself vow to dwell with the believer. The reality that God dwells with you! How does that strike you? It is daunting. It is exhilarating. You are His temple. The One who heaven and earth cannot contain; the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Lord God of Sabaoth- near to you in your frailty!
We know the promises of His presence are common in the Bible. “Where two or three come together in My name, there am I with them.”7 “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”8 When Christ was seated at the right hand of God it means not only that He was honoured with the highest possible status; it means that now also in His humanity He rules and is present everywhere according to His good and gracious will. In this way He is available to us in Holy Communion. In it He offers us a healing of higher order than the healing He provided for the sick, the blind, and the lame. He is a God of compassion. His compassion frees us to serve others because it binds our sin for all eternity. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
19 July, 2015
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Mark 6:34
2 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
3 John 6:67-68
4 Ephesians 2:20
5 Ephesians 2:22
6 John 14:23
7 Matthew 18:20
8 Matthew 28:20
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