One Spirit, One People, One Peace

Texts:  Isaiah 2:1-5; Ephesians 2:11-22

WHEN I WAS A FRESHMAN IN college, I met a guy at a party who introduced me to the concept of world citizenship.  He said he was working with a group who were lobbying the UN to make my hometown of Kansas City a "city of the world."  Somehow, the very mention of this filled me with excitement.  There was something so big and thrilling about the idea, something larger and grander and more hopeful than anything I'd conceived of before, and the thought that I myself might be involved in it made it all the more amazing.

Well, nothing came of this plan as far as I know, and it's been a long time since I thought that humanity united under a single human government is a good thing.  Still, there's something inherently appealing about the idea of human oneness and unity.  How wonderful it would be-- No barriers, no conflicts, just perfect communication and peace between man and man.

But that's not how things are in this world.  In fact, it seems like parties, opinion groups, and factions are more polarized and more in opposition than ever before in human history.  You probably have friends you don't talk to much any more because every time you get together, you end up in an argument about some issue or other.  With some people you can't even talk about the weather without things getting political!  It wouldn't be so bad if people would stick to evidence and facts, but the dividing walls of hostility are erected so high and so thick things too often end up in name-calling and insults.  So we stay in our own camps with that figurative wall standing between us, and human oneness is only a dream-- if we think it's a good thing at all.

With the way things are today, it should give us perspective on the polarization between the Jews and the Gentiles in the Roman world, as we read in St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  But their conflict concerned more than current issues; it cut to the heart of created reality, for was over who or what should be worshipped as the true God and what that deity requires of us as humans.

This question is way bigger than the debate over, say, global warming or government-run health care.  In such matters let us take our stands based on the facts as we know them, but allow that more information may prove us to be wrong.  But in this matter of Jew vs. Gentile-- or, rather, Jew vs. pagan, the Scriptures leave us in no doubt as to who was and is right, or at least, more right, in this conflict.  The Jews absolutely were, before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only people on the face of this earth who worshipped the true Lord and Creator of the universe, while the gods of the pagans were useless idols.  The Jews were the only ones who'd been given His laws to follow, the only ones whom the Lord had made His people through solemn covenant, the only ones to whom He had powerfully revealed Himself with unshakeable promises of blessing. And although the prophets spoke of a Messiah to come who would somehow bring benefit to the nations as well, they were also clear that it was through Israel alone that this Savior would come. When it came to the divisions between Jews and pagans, it was not a matter of each side giving up a little on the human level and coming to a friendly compromise.  Compromise was something Israel could not do and remain Israel.  For whenever Israel compromised with the Gentile nations, that's when they got into deep trouble.

No, as Paul writes in verse 12, time was when we who were born Gentiles were

separated from Christ [that is, the Messiah of Israel], alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

In fact, for many centuries the dividing wall of hostility was a necessary barrier to preserve Israel from total disobedience and dissolution before the Messiah could come.   It was essential that the pagans and their evil influence be kept at a safe distance from the commonwealth of Israel, and the further off the better.  But, Paul says, the time has come for the dividing wall to be taken down.  Better than that, the time has come when it has been taken down, and the two indeed have become one.

How?  By us holding interfaith councils and agreeing that all religions lead to the same god?  By us avoiding controversial subjects and just talking about puppies and kittens and blue balloons instead?

No.  It took Jesus Christ Himself to break it down and bring Jews and Gentiles together.  For as we see in verses 14 and 15,

He is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances . . .

Now when we read that Jesus has "abolished . . . the law of commandments and ordinances," we might conclude that the Jews were wrong all along and we can indulge in and celebrate all sorts of immoral behavior and do it with Jesus' blessing.  That'd save a lot of arguments, for sure!  But we'd be wrong if we did.  For Paul has just finished, up in verse 10, saying that God has created-- recreated, actually-- us in Jesus Christ for good works.  And all the Scripture tells us that a godly life is the only way to please our Creator.  So what is this abolition?

In such a case, it helps to look at the original Greek. The word translated "abolish" literally means "down-un-acting" and, in the case of this verse, scholars interpret it as "made ineffectual or powerless; nullified; invalidated."  So what was the law considered to be effectual or valid for previous to Christ?  Well, the Jews looked to keeping the Law as an effectual and valid way to please God and be justified in His presence.  And that is what Moses had said by the Spirit in Leviticus, "The man who does these things will live by them"-- that is, have life, peace, and fellowship with the Lord of life.  But by the same Spirit he also said in Deuteronomy, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."  And who can live up to that?  The Jews never could.  Certainly the Gentiles could not.  We cannot.  The Law which reflected the holiness of God only served to prove how unholy we all were.  But in His flesh-- in His perfect obedience in life and His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus fulfilled the commands of the Law in our place and set it aside as the way to peace and fellowship with God.

And as Paul writes in verse 13, in Christ Jesus we (and we're included with the Gentile Ephesians here) who were far off from Israel and alienated from God's promises have been brought near by the blood of Christ, shed for us all on Calvary's cross.  In Christ the vision of Isaiah is fulfilled, when the nations would miraculously stream up to Mount Zion and know peace walking in the ways of the God of Jacob.

I've heard that outside the United Nations building in New York there's a sculpture called "Let Us Beat Our Swords into Plowshares," frankly taking its title from the verses from Isaiah 2 that read,

They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks.

In other words, let's bring about peace on earth.  Well, people, if you're trying to achieve that by what goes on in that building, good luck.  You'll be at it a long, weary time.  No, the Scripture is clear: Man cannot end hostility: Our peace is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.  In Him is the one and only peace that can make Jew and Gentile one and create one new man out of the two warring peoples.  It took the Son of God made Man to make peace between God's covenant people and those who before had been excluded from His covenant, and He did it by His atoning death.

But His death accomplished even more.  As wonderful as it was that Jesus should make one people out of the warring human factions of Jew and Gentile,  He also reconciled humanity to Almighty God.

And we all needed reconciliation to God.  Because as we can read in Ephesians 2:3, by nature-- fallen human nature-- we are all children of wrath.  In our natural sinful state we are at war with God and God is at war with us.  But in Christ and through Christ and because of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God who is rich in mercy chose us in love to be saved through Him.  And so now, as verse 16 says, He has reconciled both groups "to God in one body through the cross, bringing the hostility to an end."

But how does this come to be true for you and me?  Verse 18 answers that question: it is the work of the Holy Spirit who gives us access to the Father through Jesus Christ our mutual Lord.  By His gracious work we're no longer illegal aliens who deserve no amnesty; God Himself as in Psalm 87 has declared us to be born citizens of the heavenly Zion and by Christ His living Word it is so.  In Jesus we are made fellow-citizens with the saints-- and by that Paul would have meant the holy men and women of faithful Israel-- and members of the household of God.  In Christ the earthly nation of Israel is redeemed and rebuilt together with the elect Gentiles into the spiritual Zion, founded upon the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the head and cornerstone.  The dividing wall has been broken down, and in its place one building rises under His power.  Together we are that building, and it is no ordinary house: it is a holy temple intended for the dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

I hope you have a sense of how beautiful this is!  But beyond that I want us all to understand the power these beautiful truths must have for our lives in this fallen world.

First of all, we were not saved to be lone-wolf, individualized Christ-followers.  Back up in verse 11, the apostle begins this passage with the word "therefore."  In the previous verses he was reminding us of our salvation in Christ and God's will for our lives in consequence of that.  But we are not on our own.  God raised us up in Christ to be incorporated into one holy people by the ministry of one Spirit.  It is absolutely false that you can be a perfectly good Christian without being part of Christ's church.  Membership in Christ's church is a fundamental part of what you were saved for.  Indeed, everyone who has been reconciled to God in Jesus Christ is a member of His Church whether he or she is able to sit in a pew or not.  Therefore, let us support and build up and act in love towards one another, for Jesus Christ is our peace.  In Him and in the power of His Spirit we can demonstrate that we are one new man, as we look out for the good of on another just as we would for ourselves.

Second, we cannot take our position as citizens of the heavenly Zion for granted, as something that simply comes with our living in our particular time and place.  No, for if things had kept on going as they had for hundreds of years, we who are not ethnic Jews would have remained strangers and aliens, unforgiven sinners, with no hope and without God in the world.  It is by grace you have been saved, just as it is by grace that the Jews who believe in Jesus as their Messiah have by grace come to know that reality.  This should give us all a sense of humility before God and a heart of compassion towards our unsaved pagan neighbors.  For we were once as they are, and the blood of Christ that brought us near to God will, in His mercy, one day bring them in as members of the household of faith, too.  So let us conduct our lives in the power of the Spirit so Christ indeed will be seen in us, that through us others might also be reconciled to the God who made them.

This brings us to the third and final truth I believe we should take from our Scripture readings today.  Despite our compassion, there will always be plenty of people around us who are perfectly content to be without God in this world.  We Christians, they charge, are the ones who are unenlightened.  Indeed, when we conduct ourselves as citizens of God's holy nation and stand up for His righteousness in this world, we will be reviled as fools, bigots, even as enemies of humanity.  It can be hard living as a Christian in this world, the way things are going.  It may threaten your position, your income, and your reputation.  But you are members of Christ's one holy nation, and our heavenly citizenship takes precedence over all other loyalties.  Yes, let us be good Americans, good members of our political parties, good trade union members, good service club members, good members of our families.  But when any direction or practice or mindset of our nation, party, union, club, yes, even of our own families contradicts the will and nature of God as we know it from His revealed Word, He calls and commands us to stand firm in the Spirit and hold fast to the truth of Christ.

It won't be easy, but we can do it.  We can do it because we are God's one new people through His one Holy Spirit.  And the one peace we rest in is Jesus Christ Himself.  He is the Peace that will always last and never fail.  He has already accomplished the cosmic work of making peace between Jew and Gentile, and between both of us and God.  And so we can find our peace in Him, no matter what our conflict with the world may be.  Rejoice, Church of God!  We are His people, bought with His blood and brought together by His Spirit.  We are God's holy temple, His dwelling place on earth, and He will see to it that His temple, His spiritual Zion, stands forever, to the glory of His name.

Unfinished Business, Part 1

Text: John 21:1-22

ONE THING I'VE LEARNED over twenty years of preaching is that my sermon title is not Scripture.  A preacher might think the title she's come up with when she's planning worship is really good and appropriate, but when she really gets into the text the Holy Spirit might have other ideas about where the sermon should go and what it should be called.  And over an even longer time of being a church member sitting in the pew, I learned that when this happens and the preacher doesn't let the congregation know, the typical church member is liable to spend half the preaching time waiting for the preacher to get to some point that fits the title printed in the bulletin, and for him the sermon falls flat.  People naturally expect the sermon content to match the printed sermon title, and they can get thrown off when it doesn't.

So as you might have guessed, this happened to me this past week.  The title I initially chose for today's sermon, "What About It?" no longer matches what the Holy Spirit wants me to bring to you from today's text.  A better title might be something like "Unfinished Business."

From the purely human point of view, the protagonist of our reading from the 21st chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, is the Apostle Peter.  Or, as he is also called, Simon son of John.  And the risen Jesus clearly has unfinished business with Him.  Peter held a unique position among the apostles, and so we have to be careful about applying everything that John writes about Peter directly to our own lives.  But all Scripture is written to build us up in faith and life in Jesus Christ, and since we are to follow and imitate our leaders as they follow and imitate Christ, this 21st chapter of John can certainly guide us as we believe and live in light of Jesus' resurrection.

The events John records happened during the forty days between Jesus' resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven.  Think how strange a period this must have been for His disciples!  It was a time of waiting, when uncertainty and hope were all mixed up together.  Christ indeed was risen; His body had been renewed and transformed in unimaginable ways.  So never again would He go back to being the same old human Jesus they'd known in the three years previous.  On the other hand, He was definitely there with them bodily and tangibly; that is, when He was there with them.  And then, their Lord had told them He was sending them out to preach forgiveness of sins in His name.  So the disciples were no longer just students, they were to be teachers with His authority.  That first Resurrection Day evening in the upper room, Jesus had breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."  On the other hand, the full outpouring of the Spirit and His empowering for ministry was several days or weeks away.  And until it fell upon them they could not begin their mission.  This business of being an apostle was unfinished.

Peter, along with the other disciples, was an ordinary person living in the most extraordinary reality humanity has even known.  A Man he knew, his Teacher and Friend, had been brutally crucified but now was risen gloriously from the dead!  Jesus had conquered sin and death and brought life and immortality to light through His mighty resurrection!  Any time now Peter and the others would be released to go out and tell the good news. But what was he to do with himself in the meantime?  He was only human, with twenty-four hours in the day to fill.  Sometimes they all could see and fellowship with their risen Lord.  But often it'd be just Peter and the other disciples, wondering when Jesus might appear next.  No human being can live in a high state of watchfulness and spiritual fervor all the time.  Even when something has occurred that's changed us and all human history, ordinary sinners like Simon Peter, like you and me, sometimes have to exhale, and think and do ordinary human things.

So we shouldn't be surprised that at some point Peter (or some other disciple) should say, "I'm going out to fish."  A lot of preachers (including me, I'm afraid) judge him harshly for proposing this, but we sin against mercy when we do.  It's totally understandable that Peter and the others might go fishing.  Jesus wasn't with them at the time; maybe they hadn't seen Him in awhile.  They were home in Galilee, the boat was available, and a little extra income for their families would be a welcome thing.  Peter wasn't announcing that he was giving up on Jesus and going back to being a full-time commercial fisherman.  No, this was a one-time proposition, and you'll notice that we never read that Jesus rebukes Peter for coming up with the idea.  It's my thought-- and keep in mind this is only my thought because we can't know for sure-- that what motivated Peter to go out fishing that night was the pressure of uncertainty and waiting.  When you don't know quite what to do, the handiest thing can simply be to do the thing you know how to do best.

We can learn something from this.  When we know exactly what Jesus wants us to do in a situation, we should do it.  We should remember His resurrection and His power and fearlessly obey His word and His will.  It can be something as momentous and long-term as going overseas as a missionary or as momentary but equally significant as calling a friend to offer a word of comfort or stopping to smile and open a door for a stranger.  When the Holy Spirit of Christ is clearly leading you, obey.

But what about when life is just going on in the ordinary way?  What if we're uncertain what God's special will is for your life?  Remember that whatever you do and wherever you are, you belong to Christ, and He is risen.  Do your work, enjoy your family and friends, and take advantage of the good things of this world, including recreation and amusements, with thanksgiving and good sense.  Being a child of God doesn't dehumanize you or take you out of the world.  Knowing that Jesus is risen doesn't oblige you to live continually on some high plane of spiritual ecstasy.  In fact, what seems to be your ordinary work and play may be Christ's special mission for you.  But in everything, keep your eyes open and your ears attuned to perceive your Lord when He comes to you with the clear word of His will.  For you are His disciple, and His business with you isn't finished.  To you He certainly will come with His word and will, sometimes when you least expect it-- as we shall see in our reading.

So, the seven disciples launch the boat out onto the Sea of Tiberias (which we also call the Sea of Galilee) and get ready to fish.  But this night the luck is against them, or maybe they've lost their touch.  They fish all night and catch nothing.

And then dawn begins to break over the water.  Dimly in the morning light they can see a figure standing about a hundred yards away on the shore.  A voice calls out, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"  The Stranger seems to know they've had no luck; in fact, in the Greek this question is definitely put in the negative.  And the disciples have to admit, "No."  So the Stranger tells them to throw their net into the sea on the right side of the boat and they'll get some.

Ordinarily, this would be a silly thing for some random person to suggest to a bunch of commercial fishermen.  If the fishing was bad at night, it's going to be worse in the morning.  Are they beginning to wonder just Who this is that has commanded them?  At any rate, they comply.  And when they do, they can't haul in the net, so many large fish are in it.

Oh, my.  Oh, my!!  What memories would be going through the heads of Peter son of John and James and John the sons of Zebedee!  Three years before, as St. Luke tells us in chapter 5 of his Gospel, these men had had another night of fishing with no luck.  And in the morning the Rabbi Jesus came along.  They'd met Him before, as St. John tells us, down in Judea with John the Baptist.  The Baptist said He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  But by the world's reckoning, Jesus was only a carpenter turned rabbi and no fisherman.  But He'd told them to push out and try again.  That time, Peter had grumbled a bit but did it to humor the Master.  Three years before, when they complied they also caught such a large number of fish the net began to break.  And now it was at the word of the Stranger on the shore, a tremendous catch is leaping into their net again.   John the beloved disciple cries out, "It is the Lord!"

But this time there's a difference.  Three years before when these things happened, Simon Peter fell at Jesus' knees and begged Him, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" But this time Peter grabs his cloak, jumps into the water, and wades to shore as fast as he can.  He's still a sinful man, but Peter now knows that in Jesus there was salvation, forgiveness, and love.  Regardless of the unfinished business in the boat and in his heart, he wants to be where Jesus is.

Brothers and sisters, let us run to Jesus, for He does not change.  He is the Son of God who rules over heaven and earth and everything in them.  The power He shows when He first calls us from our sins He still possesses when we are old both in years and in the faith. He is always able to use His authority for our good and His Father's glory.  What changes is we ourselves and our understanding of Him.  In our early years of walking with Christ we know Him a little, but He brings us on to know more and more.  Where once His holiness made us focus on the filth of our sin, He remakes us so we own His holiness as our only hope.  Like Peter who jumped out of the boat and waded to Jesus, we're still sinners; becoming totally free from of sin is unfinished business that won't be completed till we ourselves are raised to be like Christ.  But in His resurrection power He is working in us and for us, so that the sight of Him more and more will bring us gladness and joy.

The other six disciples continue to tow in the net full of fish.  When they arrive at the shore, they see that a charcoal fire is burning there, with fish already roasting on it, and bread as well.  Where could Jesus have got fresh fish so early?  This was a time and culture with no 24-hour grocery stores and no refrigeration.  He invites the disciples to bring some of the fish they've just caught, but He has no need of them.  The risen Christ is the Lord our Provider who requires nothing from our hand, but in His brotherly love He calls us to participate in His work.  Don't ever believe that without us, the Church on earth, the God who raised Jesus from the dead can do nothing.  If Christ our Lord wished it He could convert every one of His elect by the direct action of His Holy Spirit working in their hearts.  But in His grace and love He allows us to be His ambassadors and agents, bringing the food of His salvation through His word and sacrament, serving Him as we serve our neighbor in acts of comfort, encouragement, and relief.  But here in John 21 we see how Jesus told the disciples to come to breakfast and eat.  He took the bread and gave it to them.  He did the same with the fish.  Whatever we have to give comes from Him, and to Him we return our thanks and praise.

I'll have the privilege of filling your pulpit again in two weeks, and at that time, God willing, we will finish looking at this passage and see what it has to teach us about life and ministry in light of the resurrection.  Until then, I want you to consider that even though Peter seems to be the protagonist of this passage, the true central character is our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the central figure of all of Scripture and all of history, and He has unfinished business with each and every one of us.

For we, too, are living in an in-between time as we wait for Christ's return.  God has credited with His righteousness, yet we still struggle with sin.  We look back to His resurrection and live our lives in the knowledge and joy of it, yet it won't be made perfect in us until we receive our new bodies and are made perfect in Him.  Nevertheless, whatever we do, whatever He calls us to, let us live open-eyed in hope, ready to obey His commands whatever they may be.  And whether our spiritual eyes see Him or not, whether we feel His presence with us or we don't, He is with us, He provides for us, and in His good time, His heavenly business with us will one day be complete.  Amen.

"He Has Made His Light Shine Upon Us"

Texts: Psalm 118:14-29; John 20:19-31

CHRIST IS RISEN!  ("He is risen indeed!")

What a wonderful piece of good news!  This is what we believe and what we confess, the truth by which we are saved: That Jesus Christ died for our sins, and was raised in glory on the third day.

At least, I hope that is what we believe.  It's what we hope everyone we know and love believes.  But we can't take that for granted.  These days, people believe all sorts of things about life that aren't true.  They believe it's okay to give in to sin, even that it should be celebrated and given special rights.  They believe that there are all sorts of ways to gain eternal life.  They believe that truth is what they think it is, instead of what God says it is.

And they refuse to believe what is true.  The fact that God is the Creator and has the right to make the rules for creation.  The fact that sin is offensive to Him and we need a Savior to take away our sin and make us acceptable to Him.  The fact that Jesus Christ alone is that Savior, and outside of Him we have no hope now or in eternity.

There's a good chance most of us here have been Christians for years.  Maybe even from childhood.  It's hard for us to understand why it isn't obvious to others that Jesus Christ is Lord of life who is risen from the dead.

But our reading from the Gospel according to St. John reminds us that believing in Christ as our risen Savior is not automatic or obvious.  It wasn't even automatic or obvious to those who walked with Jesus as His closest disciples.  In verse 19 of chapter 20 we find them huddled together behind locked doors.  They're afraid of the Jewish authorities.  Sure, Mary Magdalene and the other women have brought the news that Christ is risen.  Peter and John have even been to the tomb and found it empty.  But they don't believe it.  As far as they're concerned, Jesus was still dead and their turn to die might come next.

And then there's Thomas, who declares frankly that he won't believe it unless he sees the resurrected Christ in person and can probe His crucifixion wounds.

All these men had walked with Jesus and seen what He could do.  All of them had heard Him say He would rise again.  All of them had heard testimony-- testimony from witnesses they should have believed--that their Lord had returned gloriously from the dead.  But they did not believe.  They could not believe.  As human beings with human limitations, it was impossible for them to believe.  But why?

First, for the same reason the unbelieving world rejects the truth of the resurrection today; the same reason that we too once didn't believe in Jesus risen: Because their minds were still blinded by sin.

The Scriptures tell us that we are all born dead in trespasses and sins.  Our eyes are closed to the vision of God and what's more, we like it that way.  We prefer to create our own worlds, our own reality, our own rules for right and wrong.  We want to be our own gods and our own saviors-- if we think we need to be saved from anything in the first place.  As Jesus said in chapter 3 of John's Gospel, unless we are born again from above by the power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot see the kingdom of God.  Unless God Himself intervenes in our spirits, we prefer darkness and won't come into the light for fear our evil deeds will be exposed.

But there's another reason why the disciples, why we human beings as human beings cannot believe in the risen Christ.  It's because God has reserved the right of converting us to Himself.  The new birth comes only from above. Becoming a child of God isn't something that can happen by human desire or initiative, but solely because God gives a person that right. God the Father must reveal to us who Jesus is, the Christ of God.  Spiritual truths are discerned by spiritual means only, by the power of God's Holy Spirit.  God has ordained that it should be this way, so the glory for our salvation and our growth in holiness should remain where it belongs, with Him alone.

And so here are the disciples in the 20th chapter of St. John, hiding and refusing to believe that Jesus had been raised until He  Himself came and stood among them, alive, risen from the dead.  "Peace be with you!" He said.  He showed them His hands and side, where they could see the wounds of the nails that fastened Him to the cross and the spear that pierced His body.  They saw, they believed, they were overjoyed.

We could say they believed because they saw the physical evidence.  And to some extent this is so.  In recent centuries many unbelieving scientists and lawyers, both atheists and men of other faiths, have looked at the historical, legal, and medical evidence for and against the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  They've had to conclude that it really happened, that the gospel accounts are true.  However--  accepting the facts intellectually didn't lead all of them to believe in the resurrection of Christ and its power in their lives.  With some, yes, God used the physical evidence to open their spiritual eyes and bring them to saving faith and joy.  But for many others, having to accept the earthly reality of Christ risen has led to disappointment, anger, and rejection.   Their sin blinds them, and God in His sovereign will has not chosen that they should see His light and believe.

It is not the mere sight of a crucified man walking around alive that convinced the disciples that evening.  That could be explained away.  Rather, it is Jesus Himself who shines His light to bring belief and joy to His fearful followers.  By His resurrection power He overcame the locked doors.  He overcame the disciples' locked, fearful minds, and demonstrated that indeed it was He Himself standing in their midst.  Result?  Saving belief.  Reaction?  Joy!!

But what of Thomas' reaction when they tell him the good news?  He demands physical evidence in order to believe, and you can be sure that he doesn't believe the physical evidence is there.  

When you read Thomas' other statements in the Gospel of John, you'll see that his doubt does not arise from scientific skepticism.  Rather, Thomas is kind of a fatalist.  He's the one, when Jesus spoke of returning to the suburbs of Jerusalem to raise Lazarus,  "Let us also go, that we may die with him," because Jerusalem was the last place Jesus should go if He wanted to stay alive.  You've probably known people like Thomas.  They expect the worst, and the best pleasure they get out of life is being right when it happens.  

Not everyone who rejects the truth of Christ does so because they feel the facts are against it.  There are also people like Thomas who feel they can't believe in the good news of Jesus risen because it is good news.  Nothing so wonderful could possibly have happened.  Even if it had, it couldn't possibly make any difference to them.  No, it's a cruel, rotten world, they tell themselves, it even killed the best and holiest Man who ever lived, and you may as well accept that's the way things are.

Can people who disbelieve due to emotional hurt change their minds on their own?  No, they can't.  Thomas couldn't, our unbelieving friends and neighbors can't, and we couldn't ourselves.

But then Jesus came and stood among His disciples, including Thomas the sad doubter.  Miraculously, by His divine resurrection power He came, despite the doors that again were locked.  He knew Thomas' thoughts without being told.  He repeated the very words Thomas had spoken earlier in the week, saying, "Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting, and believe."  And miraculously, by the divine light of revelation, Thomas was thoroughly convinced.  He did not make the physical test of Jesus' wounds.  He didn't need to.  His spiritual eyes were opened, he believed, and confessed the truth about who Jesus was and who Jesus was to him.  "My Lord and my God!" he exclaimed.  God used the earthly sight of Jesus risen to work faith in Thomas' heart.

But Jesus tells him. "Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed."  To whom is our Lord referring?  I was moved to  research the Greek of this saying, and discovered that it can literally be translated "Blessed are the ones not having seen, yet having believed."  But the words "having seen" and "having believed" are in a tense that is not limited by time.  In other words, the action of not seeing, yet believing, that Jesus speaks of can happen in the past, in the present, or in the future.  Brothers and sisters, the blessing of knowing and believing in Christ risen for you is for you now, and for all whom God shall call to believe the message  preached and recorded by His faithful apostles.  It is the blessing and gift of God that we should believe, for He has shined His light upon us and called us out of darkness and doubt.

God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead and we are raised from death and sin in Him!  How shall we respond?  With joy!  By falling at His feet and confessing, "My Lord and my God!"  By singing with the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 118, for he spoke as a prophet and looked forward to the ultimate salvation that would be found in God's own Son, the Messiah Jesus.

For the Lord is our strength and our song, He himself is our salvation.  He has made us righteous, and so we celebrate His victory over sin and death, not only on Easter Sunday but every Lord's Day of the year and all the days in between.  His right hand has won this great victory, the Lord has done this mighty thing, bursting forth from the grave.

And so in Him, we will not die, but live.  We will proclaim the wonders of what Christ has done, no matter who believes us or not, for our sins are forgiven; they no longer will lead us to death.

In Christ we can enter the gates of righteousness.  We can go into God's royal presence and give Him the thanks He deserves.  We can go where only the righteous may go, because Jesus Christ the Righteous One has gone before us and credited us with His goodness and holiness and made us acceptable to God.  He has answered our cry and has forever become our salvation.

The Psalmist refers to the stone the builders rejected that became the capstone.  This harks back to the building of Solomon's temple.  But it harks forward to Jesus Himself, who made it clear that He is the stone that was rejected.  Unbelief in Him did not start in this modern age, oh, no!  And unbelief did not and does not keep the Lord God from making His Son the capstone of all His plans for humanity.  He indeed has exalted Jesus Christ to the highest position of majesty and power, and His work is marvellous in our eyes.  This day of salvation, He alone has made it: let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Because Jesus is risen and because God has caused us to believe in the power of His resurrection, we can cry out, "O Lord, save us!" and know that He can and He will.  We can pray for success in walking in His ways, and know that His Spirit is with us so we can do just that.  Blessed is Jesus Christ who comes in the name of the Lord!  Forever let His Church bless Him!  And we can bless Him and not reject Him, for the Lord is God, and He has made His light to shine upon us.

He brings us near to worship Him, where before we wanted to worship all sort of false gods; especially, we wanted to worship ourselves.  By the grace of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead, He is our only God, and we will give Him thanks; He is our God and we will exalt Him.

Brothers and sisters, it can be hard living as a Christian in this world.  So many refuse to believe in our risen Savior, and people can be so noisy and aggressive in their unbelief.  What a temptation for us just to lock the doors and hide, like the disciples did in those early days.  But we shall not be afraid and we won't hide.  Rather, we can  have confidence in the power of God to shed His light upon this dark world and trust Him to enlighten the hearts He has chosen.  Remember what you were before He shined His light on you, and know that the hardest heart is not too hard for Him.  Let us lovingly and faithfully tell others that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead and let God do His work through His word.

Will they believe our message?  Maybe, maybe not.  All that is up to God alone.  But what ever happens, we can have faith that the Lord is good, for His love for us in Christ endures forever.  Give thanks to Him, give thanks, for Jesus Christ is risen!

(He is risen indeed!)

Alleluia, amen!

The Faithful Worker

Text:    1 Thessalonians 5:12-24

    TOMORROW AMERICA CELEBRATES the Labor Day holiday.  Kids and comedians like to joke, "Hey, it's Labor Day, why aren't we all laboring?"  But of course the day is set aside to honor all those whose hard work makes America as great as it is, and to give the workers recognition and a well-deserved special day of rest.  The idea that Labor Day is a day of rest would come as a surprise to workers in retail stores and car dealerships and other enterprises that use the long weekend as an occasion to attract customers.

    But there's a group of people who should never stop working, no matter what the day is, and that is the members of Christ's Church when we're doing His business for the sake of His kingdom.  God calls us to be faithful workers for Him, day in and day out, for He has chosen and elected us to be like the one supreme faithful Worker, Jesus Christ our Lord.

    You, the members of the Calvin Presbyterian Church of N--- City, are in a crucial position in your work in the name of Christ.  I know nothing about your now-former pastor or his time here (though I hear he's a pretty good bagpipe player), only that this past Sunday was his last time in this pulpit.  I know nothing about your time with him, the successes and failures, the plans accomplished and the ideas that fell flat.  What I do know is that from this Sunday on you will be starting a new phase in the work of this congregation.  However you choose to proceed, whether you will be going on with pulpit supply for the foreseeable future, or hiring an interim pastor, or whether you hope to begin searching for a new pastor as soon as possible, there are both possibilities and pitfalls in your way, that will have a strong effect on the work and future of this church.

    It might be tempting to come up with scenarios.  But it will be more useful, more edifying for us to examine how the work of this church should proceed as God our Father has laid it out Himself in our reading from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5.

    The Thessalonian church of the 1st century A. D. was in pretty good shape as to doctrine, ministry, and practice.  It was dear to St. Paul's heart as one that didn't need a great deal of correcting and rebuking.  In chapter 1, verses 2 and 3, he writes,

    We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of your in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus in the sight of our God and Father.

The Thessalonians were faithful workers in the Lord, and the Apostle wanted to encourage them to stay that way. 

    In our passage from chapter 5, the apostle puts first things first.  In verse 12, he writes (as we have it in the New King James Version), "And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you . . . " Now, I usually preach out of the New International Version, 1984 edition.  But with this text, I've found that the NKJV gives a more accurate and stronger rendition of the original Greek. 

    This word "recognize," for instance.  As in English, this word (which literally means "to see") urges us rightly to perceive the worth of pastors, elders, and teachers, and to pay close attention to them.  Why?  Because first and foremost, whether you have an installed pastor or in this interim time, the preaching and teaching of Word of God must take priority.  My seminary field-education pastor impressed this one thing upon me especially: That the laypeople of the church could carry on most of the work of the ministry, but the one indispensable job of the pastor, the one thing the laity could not do, was to be the theologian of the parish.  It is the pastor's job to set a faithful course in interpreting the Scriptures so Jesus Christ is glorified and the saints are built up in sound doctrine and practice.  In turn, the elders take their lead from the pastor as they teach the Word (and the Scriptures say that elders must be able to teach), and they guide all other teachers by overseeing curriculum and so forth. 

    As Paul says, pastors and elders are over you in the Lord.  That's "in the Lord"-- for His sake and His glory, not for their own power or pride, but to nurture the church in holiness and service.  You elders must resolve not merely to rule over the church and administer its business affairs, but along with that to be concerned about your brothers and sisters in this congregation, to care for their spiritual well-being, and give them all necessary aid in their Christian lives.  This you primarily must do by encouraging and admonishing them with the good news of Christ and Him crucified.  For without your labor in the Word, your labor in the Lord will be faithless and in vain.

    As a congregation, you're in a very delicate position for the next few weeks.  Without an ongoing pastor, it can be difficult to ensure that your work here is grounded in Christ and His work as recorded in Scripture.  You must do all you can, in cooperation with the presbytery, to make sure that the good food of faithful preaching and teaching continues to come to you.  Never let yourselves believe for one minute that it's not important or that you can get along without it.  As a former pastor of mine would say, a church without the faithful preaching of the Word is just the Rotary Club with hymns.

    Verse 13 reminds us we are to esteem or honor those who labor in the Word very highly for their work's sake.  You honor the surgeon who successfully treats your diseases: how much more highly you should rate the man or woman who week after week applies to you the holy medicine that brings you spiritual health and eternal life! 

    And be at peace among yourselves.  Nothing destroys a church faster than gossip, backbiting, and arguments.  Defend what is right, by all means, but always in a spirit of love and graciousness, knowing that the Lord Jesus who made peace between God and us with His blood is the only Head of the Church, not we ourselves.

    But what about difficult people in difficult circumstances?  Verse 14 addresses this issue.  We don't notice it in the English, but all these situations are taken from military life.  And isn't the church of God like an army under His command?  The exhortation-- that's a good old word we need to use more often-- is a combination of command, encouragement, and advice we'd better follow-- this exhortation is primarily addressed to pastors and elders, but all of us have a part in this work.  First of all, the unruly must be warned.  Some translations say "the idle,"or "the lazy," but it's "idle"or "lazy" as in "Idle hands are the devil's workshop."  Think of a soldier goofing off in the ranks.  Or a disruptive student sprawled out in a desk in the back of a classroom, mouthing off at the teacher.  Inevitably will be some who think the commands of Christ to live holy, upright, and moral lives do not apply to them.  They must be warned-- based on Scripture, not on our particular preferences-- that they may shape up and stop abusing the grace made available to them, lest their Christianity be revealed as a sham. 

    But the timid or fainthearted are not to be warned, they are to be comforted and encouraged.  Here we see a picture of the recruit the night before the battle, worried about what's going to happen, afraid lest he prove to be a coward and turn tail and run.  For the Thessalonians and many Christians today around the world, this fear is real.  Anti-Christian persecution is rife and our brothers and sisters are losing their lives daily for confessing Jesus as Lord.  Our own culture is making it clear in many ways that the less we say about Jesus as God, the safer we'll be from damaged reputations and lost friendships.  The temptation to timidity is there.

    So let us comfort the fainthearted.  How?  By telling each other it's okay to be afraid?  Certainly not!  Let's remind one another of who Jesus is and what He has done for us.  Let's commend one another to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who applies the steadiness of Christ to us through the ministry of His Word.

    And the weak must be upheld and built up.  Think of a new and flabby recruit who can't possibly run the obstacle course the first time through.  But gradually, he undergoes strict physical training, his muscles are made hard and powerful, and he gets so he can carry a 200-pound pack for twenty-five miles and ask for more.  In the church, again, we grow our spiritual muscles and overcome weakness by reading, hearing, and meditating on the Word of God.  We stop being flabby Christians.  But Paul makes it clear that the church leadership is to make sure this happens, not simply to hope everyone is taking care of it on their own.

    And this, as we see, takes patience.  It can be frustrating always to be warning, or encouraging, or trying to strengthen the same people over and over.  Never mind.  Keep on doing it, in the love, serenity, and peace of your Lord, knowing how patient He has been with you.

    Don't be looking out to get revenge, whether against fellow Christians or against nonbelievers.  Pursue, strive for, seek after, aspire to what is good for all people, for this is how Jesus has dealt with you.

    Verses 16 to 18 go together.  "Rejoice always," Paul says.  Why?  Because events and conditions in this world are so wonderful all the time?  No.  Rather, because Christ our God is so wonderful all the time.  Keep Him by your side in prayer all the time.  Refer every problem, every difficulty, every joy to Him at every moment.  Be in constant inward conversation with Jesus, and so in everything you will be able to give thanks, for you will be focussing on Him who is the Giver and Provider of all that is good, lovely, and meaningful.

    And do not quench the Spirit.  We think of this in terms of pouring water on a fire, and yes, that applies.  But think also of putting out a candle's flame, or turning off a light.  We can quench the Holy Spirit by refusing to pay attention when the Scriptures are being read and preached, for His special work is to shed light on the Word.  We can quench the Spirit in one another, when we refuse to listen to what might be His inspired ideas for new ministries and new possibilities in the church.  "Do not despise prophesies," Paul writes.  In our day, the canon of Scripture is closed and God is not giving us anything new to add to it.  Very rarely does He give a message that foretells the future.  But whenever the Word is faithfully told-forth, there is prophecy for our day.  There are churches who think preaching is dispensable, that if you want to get the crowds in you have to have loud music! smoke! mirrors! light shows! not some individual up front talking from the Bible.  But preaching is the means that God has ordained to bring sinners to salvation; do not despise it.

    But even as you hear the Word preached, make sure the preacher is preaching the Word.  "Test all things," says verse 21, and do so by the revealed Word itself.  The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture, and He does not contradict Himself.  And once you know that what you have been taught is the genuine article, hold onto it with all your strength.  There is no virtue in being open-minded about matters the Spirit has proven to you.

    And in all your labor for the name of Christ, as a congregation and as individuals, abstain from every form-- or, more specifically-- even every appearance of evil.  We represent Christ in the world.  This is our job for His sake.  Let's not associate Him with anything dubious or shady. 

    All this is a lot of work!  When will we ever get any rest?  Is it all up to us to do it ourselves?

    No, brothers and sisters, it is not all up to us.  In a way, it's not up to us at all.  For as we read in verse 23, God is the God of peace, and He has already given us rest in the blood of Jesus Christ.  It is He who makes us holy and enables us to live holy; as it says in Philippians, He works in us both to will and to work according to His good pleasure.  He Himself sanctifies you completely, and He will preserve your whole being: spirit, soul, and body, blameless when Jesus our Savior comes again.

    For isn't that what we are working for in the church?  The day will come when we will sit down with Jesus in His kingdom and enjoy His everlasting feast.  We will hear Him tell us, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"   We will rest and rejoice forever in His love.  He will throw away the wages of sin, which is death, and give us instead the pay He has earned for us, the riches of eternal life.  On this Labor Day weekend and always, celebrate the finished work of the One who died and rose again for you, the Master who keeps His promises.  In His sanctifying strength, keep on working, for Christ is the faithful Worker, and He will do it.

Getting on with His Job

 Texts:    Isaiah 50:4-11; Mark 1:9-15

    ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE OF this year's Super Bowl ads was the one where the young man thinks his parents are giving him a shiny yellow convertible Camaro as a graduation present, and responds accordingly.  We viewers understand right away that the real present is a mini-refrigerator for the cheapo apartment they figure he'll be getting, but he only has eyes for the fancy, expensive car.  One reason that ad works is because that's how a lot of young people feel about getting their college degrees: "I've worked hard these past four years, my parents are proud of me, I deserve a great job, a great car, a great life.  I'm great, I've arrived, it's all about me, me, me!  Yayyyy!!!"

    . . . Aren't you glad that Jesus the Son of God wasn't like that?  When Jesus of Nazareth was baptised by John in the River Jordan, He received the most wonderful gifts from His eternal Father.  As He was coming up out of the river, He saw the heavens being opened, and the Holy Spirit descending on Him in appearance like a dove.  For Jesus and those who had eyes to see, this was a sign that He indeed was the Anointed One, the Messiah.  This visible gift of the Spirit confirmed that all the virtues and powers that had always been His as the Son of God would also be His as the Son of Man.  The powers that belonged to His exalted office were His to use. 

    And with the anointing of the Spirit Jesus received His Father's approval: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

    We sinners cannot understand how beyond price it would be, to have God the Father's complete and unreserved approval. We're too focussed on the material things of this world.  And we could never in ourselves deserve God's approbation. Our sins prevent us from being pleasing to God.  Only Jesus Christ could receive such an overwhelming gift; being God's beloved Son is His right and His alone.

    If Jesus had been an ordinary human being like you and me, if as an ordinary human being He'd been able to appreciate the value of the gifts He was given at His baptism, it wouldn't be surprising if He'd react like the young man in the commercial.  "Wow!  I'm really special!  My Father loves me, He's given me these great gifts, and I deserve every bit of it!  Hey, everybody,  I'm the Messiah, worship me now!"

    But Jesus didn't react like that.  Jesus had a job to do on this earth, and it's God the Father's great gift and blessing to us that His beloved Son kept His eye on the job, He knew what He had to do, and He carried it out.

    That said, we might expect that Jesus would get straight to work preaching and healing, right after His baptism.  Maybe address the crowd of John's disciples and those who'd come to be baptised, right there on the banks of the river Jordan.  But even though He is God's beloved Son in whom there is no fault, in whom the Father is well pleased, He still has preparation to undergo.  St. Mark tells us that immediately after this the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness, compelled Him to go there, to be tempted by Satan.

    Did you get that?  It wasn't as if Jesus was spending time in fasting and prayer, and the Devil showed up unexpectedly hoping to trip Him up in a weak moment.  No, God the Holy Spirit deliberately sent God the Son into a barren, isolated place  to encounter the accuser of man, so He might be fully ready to do His saving work, to the glory of God the Father.  The word the English versions translate as "being tempted" has several layers of meaning.  Yes, it does mean "to entice someone to sin."  But it also can mean "to make a trial of, to put to the test, to discover what kind of person someone is."  It's one of the greatest jokes of the cosmos that Satan thinks he's so big and powerful and in control, and here God the Holy Spirit was using him-- simply using him-- to prove that Jesus Christ was pure gold all the way through, and binding Him even closer to His Father in heaven. 

    In our passage from Isaiah the anointed Servant of the Lord speaks of His motivation, dedication, and mission.  This was a prophecy of the Christ who was to come.  The Servant says in verses 8,

        Who will contend with me?
                    Let us stand up together.
        Who is my adversary?
                    Let him come near to me.

    Satan the accuser came near to our Lord Jesus in the wilderness, and went away defeated, for

        Behold, the Lord God helps me;
                    who will declare me guilty?

    No one, because Jesus the Servant of God put Himself wholly into the hands of His Father to vindicate and sustain Him.  In the wilderness Satan hoped to break and corrupt the Son of Man, but Jesus came out stronger, more focussed, and with greater integrity than before.

    So now, as Mark tells us, after John the Baptist was arrested--when the herald and forerunner was off the stage-- "Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'"

    This was Jesus' work, to proclaim and bring in the rulership of God on this fallen earth.  Isaiah foretold how He went about it.  His word of hope sustained the weary.  He faithfully declared all His Father gave Him to say, and He didn't turn back or rebel against saying it.  Jesus did what would be impossible for us-- He revealed that He was the center, the focus, the embodiment of the kingdom of God, but at the same time, He didn't preach Himself for Himself.  He didn't say and do things for His own comfort or to boost His self-esteem or His position in the world.  Everything He did in His ministry was done in obedience to God the Father, so sinners like you and me could be reconciled to God through Him and God glorified in heaven and on earth.

    Jesus did not turn backward from what He came to do, even when it took Him to the cross.  No, He

    gave [His] back to those who strike,
                and [His] cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
    [He] hid not [His] face
        from disgrace and spitting.

And because Jesus was pleasing to God, because He got on with the holy task the Father sent Him to do, the cross did not end for Him in disgrace and shame, but in vindication and glory.

    And because Jesus was faithful in word and deed to the job He was given to do, we, too, can share His vindication and glory.  The Scripture is clear: Jesus did what He did because He was the only one who could do it.  His fast, His temptation, His ministry, His cross, His resurrection-- all this He was willing to do, He did it all for you, to reconcile you to the Father and restore you to His love.

    This is something we can hold onto.  It's inevitable:  We will have days, weeks, months, when we don't understand what God is doing, when, as Isaiah says, we have no light and we walk in the darkness.  But there is confidence and hope for you who fear the Lord and obey the voice of Jesus, His Servant.  For His Spirit has given you an open ear to repent and believe the gospel of God's kingship.  To you is given the light of God and for you Jesus completed His mighty work of salvation.  Even in the darkness, even in the midst of uncertainty and temptation, the name of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is strong, and on Him we can rely.

    But there are those who will not accept what Jesus has already done.  They do not trust Him or accept the light He gives.  They claim to believe in Jesus, but it is an idol, a Christ made in their own image.  They claim to have light, but it is light they have kindled themselves, and such a torch will lead them astray.  Satan was only the first of those who preached the bad news of their own greatness, of grabbing the good things they feel they deserve, and those who follow him will suffer his punishment.

    But this is not what God our Father has in mind for you, not if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, who was and is God's beloved Son.  He was tried and proven in His confrontation with Satan in the wilderness, He faithfully proclaimed the good news of God's kingdom, and when the time was right, Jesus opened up the door to the kingdom of heaven by the wounds He suffered in His own body on the cross.  He did the job you and I could never do.  You can trust and rely on Him, even in times of darkness, even when temptation seems too much to bear.  God has given you the greatest gift of His love any ordinary human being can ever receive, and that is the gift of His Son.  Believe the good news:  In Christ Himself you have the kingdom, and that gift will never be taken away from you, and in Him your joy will never end.
   

Emergency Preparedness

Text :    Matthew 24:36-44; 25:1-13

   ANYTHING WORTH DOING IN life needs to be prepared for.  You all had to prepare to come to church this morning.  I made preparations so I could be with you to share God's Word.  You prepared when you got married and when you had your children.  People prepare to do their jobs, to go on vacation, to retire.  At least, they do if they're wise.  

        Then there are the kind of things that are bound to come into every life, but we can't know for sure when or how.  Sudden illness or the loss of a job.  And what about those life emergencies we hope won't happen to us, but might?  Nobody plans to undergo natural disasters like floods or wildfires or devastating Fall snowstorms, but it's still wise to be prepared.

    Emergency preparedness is preached to us from all quarters.  Have enough food stored up!  Formulate a meet-up plan for your family!  Buy gold and silver for when the market collapses!  But for the ultimate emergency this world will ever see, how can we be ready?  What do we need to do, what do we need to lay up for ourselves to be prepared?     

    In chapters 24 and 25 of the gospel according to St. Matthew, our Lord Jesus tells what it will be like when the Kingdom of heaven finally emerges in all its stupendous grandeur, on that day when Jesus Christ Himself will return in glory to judge the living and the dead.

    In the portion we read from chapter 24, we see that His coming will indeed be an emergency.  For the most part, people will be living life as normal when the Son of Man returns.  "As it was in the days of Noah," Jesus says in verse 37, people will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.  That's not to say there will be no signs of His coming; no, it's just that we humans have an amazing capacity to be blind to anything that threatens our everyday routine.  When Jesus comes again, believers and unbelievers alike will be going about their ordinary work, making a living, doing what people do.  Two men in a field: one taken, one left.  Two women grinding grain together: one taken, one left.  Incidentally, the Greek word rendered "taken" in our modern translation has a positive meaning in Matthew's gospel; the idea is of taking someone to be with you, not taking them off to destruction. 

    Whichever category we fall into, the coming of Christ will be an unexpected emergency, and Jesus says we believers need to be prepared.  "Therefore keep watch," says Jesus in verse 42, "because you don't know on what day your Lord will come."  In fact, for those who are not prepared, Jesus' second coming will be like having your house broken into in the middle of the night.  "So you must also be ready, because the Son of Man will come when you do not expect him."

    So what does it mean for us to be prepared for His coming?  Jesus tells four parables to help us understand.  The first is the parable of the faithful and wise servant, which Matthew relates in verses 45 to 51 of chapter 24.  We didn't read that section this morning, but it shows us that a big part of being ready consists in doing those acts of service towards one another that Jesus Himself commands for us day after day.  This parable is especially addressed to pastors and elders, whose responsibility it is to give the Master's other servants their food at the proper time-- the food of the Word of God.

    But what happens when we've done all we can to be ready,  and all we can do is wait?  The second part of today's reading helps us with that question.

    If we want to understand the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, it will help to know a little about first century Jewish marriage customs.  The practice was that when a young man took a fancy to a particular young women, he, or his father on his behalf, would approach the girl's father and make an offer for her hand.  The men would settle on the financial arrangements, then the young woman would be brought in to see if she agreed to have the young man.  If so, the marriage covenant was sealed with a glass of wine and the engagement was made.  As we know from the story of Mary and Joseph, this engagement had the effect of marriage, and a formal divorce was necessary to break it.  The only difference was that the couple would not come together for a year or more after this.  The girl continued to live in her father's house, and the young man would return to his father's property, to build a dwelling where he and his new bride would live.  Then, when all was ready, he would come by night with his groomsmen to the bride's house, in a torchlight procession to take her away to be with him.  When they approached her house, the best man would shout out, "Look! The bridegroom has come!  Come out to meet him!"  The groom would lay claim to his bride, and her bridesmaids would join the torchlight procession back to his home and the home of his father, where the marriage would be completed with the formal ceremony, the consummation of relations between the bridal pair, and a week of feasting by the family and their guests.

    Now, it is said that some grooms liked to take their brides totally by surprise.  But in this parable, Jesus says that at the time of His coming, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who have gotten word that the groom is coming  sometime very soon.  Five are wise, and five are foolish.

    Let me say that with Jesus' parables, we must be careful not to turn them into allegories.  An allegory is a story where every last detail symbolizes something specific, whereas the point of a parable is, well, to make a point.  It is proper to say that the bridegroom who is coming is Jesus the Son of Man Himself.  But the point of this parable is preparedness, especially, preparedness for an event that we know definitely is coming, but we don't know exactly when.

    At first, it looks like all ten of the bridesmaids are ready.  They've all heard the bridegroom is coming tonight, and they've  all taken up their positions in the street near the bride's house.  All of them have lamps-- torches, actually, it would have been-- for the procession back to the house of the groom.  They did all they could do, and now, all they could do was wait.

    So it is with us.  We know Jesus will definitely return someday.  We look around ourselves these days, and we think that perhaps, just maybe, the signs are right that He may well come back in our day.  In contrast to the faithful servant of the previous parable, this teaching is not so much about taking action or doing, but about our attitude of heart and mind.

    For Christ our Bridegroom, for His good purpose, does delay.  And we are weak and human, and like those ten girls we simply cannot be looking out for His coming all the time.  Sometimes we have to sleep.  We have to take care of the ordinary business of life.  Neither the foolish nor the wise virgins are condemned for sleeping; it's just a fact of the situation.  True preparedness is revealed when the emergency occurs, when they're all awakened by the midnight cry, "Here's the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him!"

    It's too late now to take thought about what they will do or what they need.  It's time for them to put their torches in order to light the bridal couple back to the father's house.

    But the foolish girls have brought little or no oil.  Their torches are going out as soon as they are lit.  "Give us some of your oil!" they demand of the others.  But the answer is no.

    Are the wise virgins selfish and cruel not to share?   This detail tells us that when Jesus speaks of "oil" He is referring to something belonging to each person, that can't be shared.  In Scripture, oil tends to signify the Holy Spirit and His anointing.  It'd be foolish of us, though, to think that the Holy Spirit were some sort of commodity, something we can have more or less of.  Rather, think of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life.  He's the One who brought you to salvation.  He's the one who confirms the grace of Christ to you in baptism and Holy Communion.  The Spirit illuminates the Word of God to you are you read it and as you hear it preached.  The Spirit causes you to have a wise attitude of heart, full of faith in your Lord Jesus, a heart that can persevere in any kind of trial, no matter how long He may delay. 

    But there are many in the church who simply are going along for the ride.  They think they can enter the kingdom of heaven on someone else's faith.  They believe, foolishly, that they don't need to know anything about Christ and what He has given to them in His death and resurrection.  Their Jesus is only a creature of their own imagining, a mascot to help them get along in this life, but no good for the life of the world to come. Those who are foolish are not really expecting Christ to return as Lord and Judge; even less, they do not eagerly desire to see Him appear as the beloved Bridegroom of the Church.  If that's your attitude, what do you need a heart and mind prepared by the Holy Spirit for? 

    But those who are wise do walk according to the Spirit. They take advantage of the means of grace that He provides them, so they will have light when the crisis comes.

    When Jesus returns, it will be too late to get ready.  The wise virgins literally are sending the foolish girls off on a fool's errand when they tell them to go find someplace to buy oil at midnight.  Interpreted, their words mean, "You should have prepared when there was time.  We cannot share with you; it simply isn't possible, and now you must take the consequences of your foolishness."  But those who are like the foolish virgins will actually think they will be able to purchase the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives at the time when Christ returns.  But it will be too late.  The very fact that they will attempt such a thing shows that they do not belong to Christ at all, however much they have appeared to be part of the visible Church, and the door to the marriage feast of the Lamb will be closed against them. 

    "I do not know you" they will hear.  This is not a statement of simple fact on the part of the Bridegroom, but a formal rejection of those who did not care for Him enough to be ready at His coming.

    What of us?  Are we ready for Christ's return, no matter how long He may delay?  Are we improving our baptism by heeding and following the Holy Spirit as He ministers to us in Word and Sacrament?  When the ultimate crisis comes in your life, be it death or the coming of our Lord to judge the living and the dead, will you be firm in your faith that He died for your sins and rose to give you life eternal?  This isn't something you can do in your own strength or your own effort.  This grounding of heart and mind can't be acquired at the last minute when the shout of the archangel announces that the Lord is near.  It is yours only by the gracious gift of Jesus Christ in His Holy Spirit.  Be wise and follow His leading as He strengths you by the Word of Scripture.  Let Him serve you with Christ and all His benefits at the Table of the Lord and as you remember your baptism.  May He confirm to you more and more each day that your Lord Jesus Christ is coming, He is coming soon, and that will be the most glorious, joyful day of your life.

    For although Jesus wants us to see ourselves in the bridesmaids in this parable, we must never forget that ultimately, we who are called and confirmed by His Spirit are also the Bride.  Your Beloved is coming!  Live the life on earth He has given you, but be ready, always ready to run to meet Him when He comes.

    Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!  Amen.

Taking and Giving

Texts: John 16:5-15; Acts 2:1-41

    I MADE A MISTAKE THE other day at work.  I ran my nose into the sidelight of a door.

    I substitute teach, and last Wednesday I was in for a Special Ed. teacher.  I was told to report to the cafeteria to supervise a particular child at lunch.  Only, this past Wednesday the school had a patio cookout for the students.  I approached the doors to the patio and looked out, seeing if I could see the child I was in charge of.  It was sunny out there, the outer doors were open, and I looked and looked but couldn't see the student or her homeroom teacher.  But I saw another teacher for the same grade.  All right, I'll go on out and ask her where my kid was.  Very purposefully, I headed out the door.

    Only it wasn't a door.  It was a sidelight, which the custodial staff had cleaned all the marks off.  Remember the old Windex slogan, "Glass so clean, it seems to disappear"?  It was like that.  I flattened my nose against that window, left a giant oil smudge on the glass, cut and bruised my nose, stunned myself, and blew the rest of the period sitting with a compress in the nurse's office.

    That was a mistake.  But we can make a bigger mistake in our thinking about God's Holy Spirit, Whose coming we celebrate on this day of Pentecost.  We can focus on Him and His gifts too much, as I should have with that sidelight, so we never see Jesus through Him.  Or we can see Jesus through Him, but forget that unlike that sidelight at school, He is an open door and He calls us to go through.

    What is the Holy Spirit's job?  Jesus says it simply in John 16:14: "He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you."  The Spirit takes everything about Jesus, from the first prophecies in the Garden of Eden to His ascension into heaven, and says to us, "All this your Saviour did for you."  He helps us understand why Jesus did what He did and said what He said.  He shows us who Jesus Christ really is and stops us from believing in false Christs of our own imagining.  His whole purpose on this earth is to lead us through Himself into the salvation and fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ.  As Jesus says, the Spirit does not speak on His own.  His purpose is not to attract attention and glory to Himself, but to give glory to the crucified and risen Son of God, and to God the Father through Him.

    This is why it's important that we don't stop our Pentecost reading at Acts 2:13.  We need Peter's sermon to shows us the Spirit in all His taking and giving power.  Stop at verse 13, and we treat the Holy Spirit as the goal in Himself.  We bruise our noses on Him and never get through to what He wants us to experience and know.

    In Acts 2 we read that on the day of Pentecost, in the year that Jesus was crucified and rose again, the disciples, men and women, were all together in one place.  Suddenly, with rushing wind and flaming fire they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spilled out into the street, speaking in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.  They were all Galileans, but Jews and converts to Judaism from all over the Roman world heard them speaking to them in their own native languages, from east and west and north and south.  Speaking to them about the excitement they, too, could feel once the Holy Spirit fell upon them?  No.  In the power of the Spirit, these formerly-frightened souls were proclaiming the wonders of God.

    The Spirit is always about proclaiming the wonders of God.  He does not speak on His own, He does not draw attention to Himself; He speaks of what He hears from the Father.  He brings glory to Christ by taking what is Christ's and making it known to the world, that lost humanity might believe and be saved.

    We see the work of the Spirit in the sermon Peter preaches there in the street in Jerusalem. Immediately he quotes from the book of the prophet Joel, how the days would come when God would pour out His Spirit on all people.  God has spoken in Old Testament prophecy by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit keeps on showing us the truth of those words today. The last days spoken of by Joel had begun that Pentecost morning in Jerusalem, and we are still living in those last days. The Spirit is God's life-giving communication with His people, in prophecy and holy visions and divine dreams.  He entrusts the saving message to all kinds of people, regardless of sex or age or economic class.  The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost showed that a new age was dawning, and it will not end until the great and glorious day of the Lord will come.  God is speaking to us by His Spirit in these last days, and His message is this: That everyone who calls on the name of the Lord might be saved.

    But who is this Lord we must call upon?  Speaking in the Spirit, Peter declares that this is none other than Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus proved He was the Messiah by His public miracles, wonders, and signs.  The people standing there either had seen Him do all this themselves, or they had it from reliable witnesses.  Jesus was accredited by God to be the Holy One promised by the prophets, the Lord and King who would deliver Israel and reconcile them to God.  The Spirit says, Call on Jesus' name and be saved!

    Yes, but what about the crucifixion? Wasn't Jesus condemned for blasphemy?  Didn't He die like a common criminal?

    In the strength of the Spirit, Peter is able to announce clearly and boldly: "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge."  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ wasn't a sad accident, or just desserts, or yet another example of the absurd indifference of the universe.  It was part of God's plan for the exaltation of His Son and the redemption of our souls.  And so God raised Jesus from the dead, "because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."

    We see here how the Spirit is taking what is Christ's-- His life, His death, and His resurrection-- and bringing glory to Him through it.  Especially, the Spirit animates Peter to demonstrate the truth of Jesus' resurrection.  If there's going to be Holy Spirit preaching, it has to glorify Christ risen from the dead. Look at Psalm 16! Peter urges the crowd.  King David was a prophet, and he foresaw that God's Holy One would not decay in the grave.  David speaks in the first person, but he cannot be speaking about himself, for as everyone knew, David's tomb was right outside Jerusalem.  Rather, he was speaking of the resurrection of the Christ Who was to come.  Peter and the other disciples could confidently testify that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and He indeed had been raised from the dead.  They were all witnesses of this fact.

    Not just in Peter's sermon but in all faithful preaching, the Spirit witnesses to the fact of Christ's ascension into heaven.  Jesus now is exalted to the right hand of the Father in majesty.  There in glory the Jesus receives the Holy Spirit as a gift to Him from the Father, and from His throne in heaven the Son sends the Spirit to us.  This is the same Spirit that enabled David to testify about Jesus, saying,

    The Lord said to my Lord:
           "Sit at my right hand
    until I make your enemies
           a footstool for your feet."

    The crowds in Jerusalem didn't witness Jesus' ascension into heaven.  Neither did we.  For that matter, the disciples themselves could not see what happened to Jesus after the cloud hid Him from their sight.  But the power and the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's people prove that Jesus indeed is exalted on high.  Only One who was God Himself could promise to send the Spirit upon us and keep it.  Our ascended and glorified Lord has sent the promised Holy Spirit, and by His revelation we can be assured that God has made this Jesus, Whom our sins crucified, both Lord and Christ.  The Spirit brings our rebellious souls into submission to Him.  The Spirit opens our eyes to worship Christ as our God and heavenly King.  And the Spirit changes our hearts to accept Jesus as the one Saviour and Redeemer of our souls.

    The Holy Spirit spoke on that day nearly two thousand years ago.  He spoke in the words of Scripture written and by the word faithfully preaching.  This is still how He speaks today.  Churches think they have make things exciting and new if people are to believe in Christ.  No.  It is still through the Word that the Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and gives it to us, that men and women might repent and be saved.

    The people that day were cut to the heart by what Peter had said.  The Spirit convicted them of their sin, and they cried out, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

    The Holy Spirit's answer to them is the same for as for us:  "Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins."  Baptism is God's holy sign given to us in the Spirit that shows that we now belong to Him.  The Holy Spirit Himself is the seal of our baptism into Christ, come to live in us, to guide us into all truth, to bind us to God in Christ forever.  He is God's gift to us, for all who receive Jesus Christ by faith.

    Peter says, "The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God will call."  The gift of the Holy Spirit transcends Israel.  He is not just for the old, the wise, and the learned.  He descends and dwells in everyone in all times and in all places, all whom God has elected to be joined to His people.

    On that day of Pentecost, the Spirit took what was Christ's and He gave it to the citizens and visitors of Jerusalem.  Luke records that about three thousand accepted Peter's message about Jesus that day and were added to "their number"-- that is, the number of God's Church.  Brothers and sisters, one of the Spirit's greatest roles is to incorporate us into the body of the Church through Christian baptism.  Paul's Letter to the Ephesians returns again and again to the truth that in the Spirit we are built up together to be God's dwelling place.  It is the Spirit who gives gifts to the members of the Church for the good of the Church.  We are to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all. On that Pentecost morning the Holy Spirit gave birth to the Church of Jesus Christ, and to this day He is her life, her unity, and her power.

    Brothers and sisters, this same Holy Spirit is at work in the Church today. He is still taking what is Christ's and giving it to us, that Jesus might be glorified in heaven above and on the earth below.  He is still opening minds to the meaning and power of the Scriptures.  He is still entrusting men and women with the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.  Even when we go astray, the Spirit is still convicting the Church and the world of our sins and calling us out of darkness into the light of the grace of God.

    The Holy Spirit is our open door into this grace.  I invite you now, accept His ministry in you.  Go through the door into the joy found only in Jesus, the Son of God.  The Spirit declares:  Jesus died for you, He rose for you, He ascended into heaven for you, He sent the Holy Spirit for you.  Accept the truth the Spirit brings, for He does not speak on His own, He speaks only what He hears, and His message is forgiveness, salvation, and joy in Jesus Christ, now and forever more.  Amen.

Christ's Resurrection and You: Noblesse Oblige

Texts:    Romans 8:9-25; John 20:19-23

        ALL OVER THE WORLD THIS PAST FRIDAY, PEOPLE were glued to coverage of the royal wedding.  Even we Americans find the British monarchy fascinating.  And I'm wondering, how would you feel, how could you act, if it could be proven that you were the direct, legitimate descendant of royalty?

    The other night, I was doing some genealogical work online.  I think it'd be fun to give my mom an updated version of her chart for Mother's Day, and I was trying to see how far back I could get.  Well, I hit paydirt with a website that had page after page of information on a branch of the family I hadn't researched much before.  I identified my three-times-great grandmother, and on her "Person Page" the notes said that, according to a book called Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants, she was the direct descendant of Edward I of England and Robert II of France.

    Wow, I thought.  Wow.  I'm descended from kings and queens!  Immediately I began to sit a little taller.  Instantly I felt more responsible, more capable.  I was filled with a sense of noblesse oblige, the conviction that I had a duty to do great and good things in my life, and not only that, that I had the ability to do them.

    There was one problem.  The fourth or fifth cousin who published this website had inserted a question mark in the middle of this note.  Oh-oh.  So I dug further.  And it turns out that this claim to royal blood came about because great-great-great grandmother Sophia's great-grandpa Matthew ran around colonial Maryland claiming to be a younger son of a certain duke or earl back in England.  There's no mystery about that; it's well-documented that that's what he alleged.  Trouble is, the records in England say the nobleman's son named Matthew died as a young boy, and the family coat of arms our Matthew sported in the colonies wouldn't have been the proper style for a younger son, even if the duke or earl had been his father.

    Oh.  So much for my royal ancestry.  It was inspiring for the half-hour it lasted!

    But then it hit me-- I am related to royalty!  And so are you!  And our relationship to the King is a lot closer than thirty or forty generations back.  And we've got a lot better proof of it than what we read on some website or in somebody's book or what some ancestor bragged about four hundred years ago.  You and I are children of the great Monarch of the universe, God Almighty Himself, and the guarantee of that relationship is the resurrection of our Elder Brother Jesus Christ and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

    See what it says in Paul's letter to the Romans.  If we'd had time to read the whole eighth chapter, we'd see that it begins and ends with God's solution to our sense of condemnation over our sins.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ, and because Christ is for us, no one can bring any charge against us; we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  The second part and the next to the last part tell us what life is like for those who are still under condemnation and those who through Christ are conquerors over sin.  And the center of it all shows us how we are more than conquerors.  Verses 14 through 17 assure us that we're not just victorious warriors in God's army, we are sons and heirs in God's household!

    How do we know?  We know it by the power of the Holy Spirit in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Verse 14 says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  Verse 16 assures us that  "The Spirit of God testifies with our spirit that we are God's children"!  Up in verse 10, we are assured that by His Spirit the risen Christ is living in us, making our spirits alive because of His righteousness, even while our bodies are effectively dead because of sin.  This Spirit living in us is the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, and He will also bring about the resurrection of our mortal bodies.  Christ's resurrection makes ours possible; more than that, it guarantees that we, too, will rise.

    Can we believe that?  Yes, because we are children of God, sealed with His Spirit.  And as it says in verse 17, "if we are children, we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ."  Titus 1, verses 5b-7 say that "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."  Our inheritance is first and foremost eternal life!  When Christ arose, He proved that He has eternal life to give.  He showed that because we are in Him, we now share the deathless life that He displayed outside the tomb that first Easter morning.

    It's important for us to keep the "sons of God" language in this passage.  In ancient Greco-Roman society, daughters did not inherit the estate from their fathers.  Of course, neither did servants or slaves.  Nor, ordinarily, did boys born out of wedlock.  It was legitimate sons who inherited their fathers' possessions and power.  And adopted sons could inherit as well.  And so Paul writes that we all have received the same spirit of sonship through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ alone is God's Son by substance and nature.  But through His blood we have been legally adopted by God. All the good things that are coming to Jesus are also coming to us.  We all will share in His glory that will be revealed at the last day, when He comes to judge the living and the dead.

    We will share in His glory, that is, if indeed we share in His sufferings.  The earthly life of an adopted royal son is not one of indulgence and ease.  In verses 5 through 8 of this chapter Paul talks about the low, deadly, hostile, and rebellious life and attitude we find in someone who isn't controlled by God's Spirit.  It makes sense that someone like that who's outside of God's favor is going to suffer for it.  But in verses 18 on, we see that we who belong to God's household by adoption can expect to suffer in this life, too. 

    Of course we can say that people who reject God suffer from His wrath, while God's children suffer from the wrath of the world.  But that's not where Paul takes us in the next part of chapter 8.  No, he seems to be telling us that just as we are bound up in Christ and share His sufferings and His coming glory, so too is the creation bound up in suffering with us and waits to be brought to glorious freedom when we are fully revealed as God's beloved sons.  We represent creation, and only with us will it be freed from its bondage to death and decay.

    So in this life we still struggle against the effects of sin, our sins and the sins of others.  We still experience the disruption of creation brought about by the Fall, we're still subject to calamities like earthquakes, floods, and deadly storms.  As children of God these disasters make us long for the day when God's purpose will be fulfilled and the promise of Christ's resurrection will be made perfect in us.  Paul writes that when His glory is revealed in us, every bad thing that has ever happened to us will be seen to be nothing, in comparison to the glory we will inherit.  But right now we're still in the middle of the war.  Our adoption as sons is not yet complete; it won't be final until our bodies are redeemed, resurrected, and renewed to be like the body of the risen Christ.  At that time all creation will be redeemed and renewed with us.

    Still, even now the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God.  Therefore, what should be our attitude?  Since the royal shed blood and triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ have given us life, how should we behave?

    The term was "noblesse oblige."  It literally means "nobility obliges."  Verse 12 tells us, "Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation-- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it."  Being a child of Almighty God does not give us the right to sin up a storm on the basis that Jesus paid for it all.  It does not give us license to look down on unbelievers as if it was some virtue or attractiveness in ourselves that made Jesus save us.  Being related to God the Father by the royal blood of Christ does not entitle us to condemn others as if we ourselves did not deserve to be condemned.  That is living according to the sinful nature, and if you do that, you will die.

    No, rather, because God has made us His children through the resurrection of His Son, we struggle to put to death the misdeeds of our sinful flesh.  By the Spirit of God we do this; not on our own: He causes us to cry out to our heavenly Father and depend on Him alone.  By His Spirit He makes us more and more like His Son Jesus Christ.

    As the Spirit leads us, we grow to do the deeds that befit our status as royal children.  I think my response of responsibility and capability when I thought I might have royal ancestry was the right one, even though, I admit, it was rather silly even if it had been true. As beloved sons in the household of our heavenly Father, we do have the responsibility confidently and ably to represent our Lord wherever we are and to whomever we may meet.  A tall order for weak, sinful mortals like ourselves-- but God through His Spirit gives us the capability to do all He asks.

    When the risen Christ appeared to His disciples in the Upper Room the night of His resurrection, John says that "he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'" This was a foretaste of the great outpouring that would come forty days later at Pentecost.  But it's important what our Lord says to them next.  He says, "‘If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'"

    I hope you understand what a weighty obligation that puts on you.  It applies especially to us pastors and teachers, who have the responsibility of opening the word of God and declaring Christ's forgiveness out of it.  But you, the Church; you, the individual Christian, also have a noble obligation in the power of the Spirit to declare the forgiving gospel of Christ to those around you.  You have an obligation to be the face and form of the Body of Christ to those whom you meet every day.

    It's a formidable responsibility.  In our weakness we fail at it all the time.  But you are not alone.  You have God's Holy Spirit living in you, proving to you that you are His child, demonstrating that your lineage through the blood of Jesus Christ is true.  You have the power of Christ's resurrection in you, giving you life and sustaining you with His promise through all the struggles and sufferings of this life.  You have this holy Supper, where you may see, touch, and taste, and have the promise of His everlasting life confirmed to you.

    The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the risen Lord, and  we will share their jubilation when He returns with all His saints when He comes again in glory.  Until then, stand tall, walk by the Spirit, and remember who you are.  By the resurrection of your Lord Jesus Christ, you are a child of God. You are His heir, and a co-heir with Christ.  May God work in you and in all His children what is pleasing to Him, to the glory of His name.  Amen.