John 3:16

The Gospel for Wednesday of Whitsun Week includes the most popular of all Bible passages.  But it is also frequently misunderstood.  The sermon.

The Voice of the Shepherd

The Gospel for Tuesday in Whitsun Week (St. John 10:1-10) provides us with two ways for the sheep to be safeguarded against false shepherds.  The first is that their shepherd must go through the door.  That is, he must be properly and divinely called and ordained to preach.  The second is that his voice must be that of the Good Shepherd.  That is, he must preach the Gospel of Jesus and his mercy and forgiveness.  The sermon.

The Breath of Jesus (continued) and the Preaching of the Gospel

What began on Pentecost continues to the present day, and time, and place.  This preaching is the breath of Jesus, it is the sound of the Spirit that filled the house on Pentecost day.  It is the word of Christ who suffered and rose.  The sermon.

The Breath of Jesus

The Gospel for the Vigil of Pentecost is St. John 20:19-23, in which we learn that on Easter, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost." Clearly, therefore, the Holy Spirit is none other than the breath of Jesus.  The Gospel of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection is proclaimed with his breath, now to all the world.  The sermon, with the Pentecost sequence and Gospel, is here.

Angels Behold the Ascending Lord

The angels attending Christ call out, Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

The gate keeping angels reply, Who is this King of glory?

The first reply, The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

The second ask again, Who is this King of glory?

The first insist, The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.

The Ascension, referenced in this 24th Psalm, is also referenced in Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 63 (the latter references provide support for the idea that this conversation in the 24th Psalm is of heavenly angels concerning the ascending Christ.

The sermon, from Tuesday in the Octave of the Ascension.

Exaudi, the Sunday after the Ascension

Jesus' ascension is customarily considered from the vantage point of earth, as we have recorded in the accounts in Acts 1, St. Luke 24, and St. Mark 16.

But there is also a heavenly vantage point from which this event may be considered, namely the perspective of the holy angels.  This is what is seen in the 24th Psalm, in which the angels are heard calling to one another.  The herald call, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in" is greeted with incredulity by the reply, "Who is this King of glory?" For what the second group of angels see is the approach of a man.  Hence the first replies, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," and repeats the command, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in."  But reply is repeated, as it is scarcely to be believed, even by angels: "Who is this King of glory?" And the herald insists, "The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory."

Another perspective is that of the prophet Isaiah, who in his well-known vision is seeing this same event, namely Jesus' ascension: "I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple"  (the angels present are clearly the very angels whose conversation is the substance of Psalm 24, above, recorded here as "Holy, holy, holy, etc.").

And in today's Gospel, Jesus declares that he will send the Spirit and these apostles, which is one and the same sending.  That is to say, through the same heavenly portal through which he ascends, the Spirit descends, and flows out through the mouths and preaching of the apostolic band.  The preaching of the Gospel is the result of the sending of the Spirit, something that is writ large on Pentecost Day.

But the channel between earth and heaven (which can also be called Jacob's ladder) remains open, and the people of God who receive the Gospel and mercy of God may confidently expect that they, too, shall ascend to the right hand of God.  For their flesh and blood is already there in the person of Jesus, as the hymn writer puts it: "Thou hast raised our human nature on the clouds to God's right hand.  There we sit in heav'nly places, there with Thee in glory stand.  Jesus reigns, adored by angels, man with God is on the throne.  Mighty Lord, in Thine ascension we by faith behold our own."

So let us with heart and mind thither ascend.  And we do this whenever we sing the Sanctus, which comes out of Isaiah's vision of the Ascension.  And when we then immediately receive the Body and Blood of Christ, these come down to us also, through the Spirit, from the right hand of God.  We become partakers of the divine nature.

The sermon.

Jesus' High Priestly Prayer

On Rogation Tuesday, we pondered part of Jesus' high priestly prayer (St. John 17:1-19) which the Evangelist seems to have imported from Ascension Day.  The sanctification of Jesus' disciples comes through the word of truth. The sermon.

Rogate Sunday

To pray in Jesus' name is to pray in his stead.  And this is something which had not been done until he completed the work of salvation, and so completed the name of God: Jesus (God is salvation).  The sermon.

The Truth Shall Make You Free

In St. John 8:21-36, Jesus explains to the Jews that he always does what pleases his Father, something that no one else could truthfully say.  Yet he is the Truth, and here invites his hearers to know the truth, and it shall set them free from their sins.  For salvation is and can only be by grace and through faith in him.  The sermon.

Cantate Gospel and Epistle sermons

A second Cantate sermon on the Gospel, preached Tuesday morning, is here, and a sermon on the Epistle, preached at Tuesday vespers, is here.

Cantate

This Gospel, in which Jesus describes what the Spirit will do, is really all about what the preachers will preach.  That's why he says, "Ye cannot bear them now."  They will be bearing them, after the resurrection, to all the world.  The sermon.

Funeral sermon - Elva Garrison

Elva Garrison died Sunday night.  Her funeral was today.  Here was a lady whose constant faith was remarkable, and worthy of emulation.  In many ways she was like Martha, and like Mary; and her faith is the same faith into which we are all baptized.  The sermon.

St. Philip and St. James the Apostles' Day

These martyrs learned the lesson Jesus had to teach that day, that they should not look beyond him, for he who has seen him has seen the Father.  So they themselves were martyred, Philip by crucifixion, and James while crying out "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  They found glory in the cross of Jesus, and in their own martyrdoms.  This recording contains the Gospel chanted, as well as the sermon.

Jubilate

"A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me," repeated several times, gives the impression that this is an important phrase, meant to be repeated.  So do we hear the Gospel proclaimed Sunday after Sunday.  Jesus, who was taken away and crucified after a little while, was then raised from the dead after another little while.  This also gives confidence for Christian life, with its little whiles of sorrow.  All trouble and darkness shall be followed, in a little while, with abiding joy.  This knowledge provides courage for life.  The sermon.

St. Mark

This evangelist is the most self-deprecating of all, both showing the twelve and himself in a bad light.  Jesus is seen as continually scolding them for their slowness to understand, and when he is arrested they all flee.  But Mark is no better, for his "signature" is his appearance as the young man with the linen cloth about his body, who fled away naked when they grabbed the cloth.  The Gospel is for such as these.  The sermon.

The Dead Shall Hear

St. John 5:22-30 contains Jesus' declaration "the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live."  This looks ahead to the raising of Lazarus, which, like this discourse, is reported only in St. John's Gospel.  The raising of Lazarus is a clear demonstration that resurrection and life, which come at the Last Day, are also here in the present-day, in Christ.  Indeed Christ himself is risen, the Firstfruits of them that sleep.  It is this knowledge that gives the faithful, as the collect for Misericordias Domini puts it, "perpetual gladness."   The sermon.

The Good Shepherd

A good doctor cares about his patients, a good teacher cares about her students; a good shepherd cares about his sheep.  He does not care about the money; he’s not in it for himself; he’s not a hireling.  This is a description of the heart of God: misericordias domini. 

This is who God is: he is giving; and this is why he made the world in the first place, to have something, someone, to care for.  And the world he made was very good, just like him.

The serpent took all that away from the heart of man when he beguiled him to take for himself.

This is why your heart is now the way it is, and is so unlike the heart of God.  Why it is always necessary to confess your sins.

But God overcame the serpent’s selfishness with love, and overcame evil with good: he gave his life into death.  The Lord, my shepherd, became the ultimate Good Shepherd, to rescue me from myself and from my sins.  To provide divine mercy for me.

Shepherding is a dirty vocation.  This is why the Egyptians despised the Israelites: they were shepherds.  In applying this image to himself, Jesus is at once saying that he is the Lord God Almighty in the work that fulfills the 23^rd Psalm, and showing how it was a very filthy thing to do: he was sullied with the sins of the world, and laid down his life.  He became the good shepherd.

But his shepherding did not cease at that point, for he rose from the dead.  What use is a dead shepherd?  He must rise, in order to continue to shepherd his sheep, to care for them.  So on the third day he rose from the dead.

Other sheep have I which are not of this fold: the Gentiles, to whom he sent his apostles.  But he said, them I must bring; so it is that through their ministry he is active in continuing his shepherding of his sheep.

Here, then, is what the church and her ministry are all about: the church is the sheepfold, and the ministry is the shepherding tools of Jesus.  It is also why every good pastor must understand that he is an under-shepherd, that is, a tool of Jesus, and nothing more.  Does the plow get credit for a straight row?  Does the knife get high marks for successful surgery?  So the sheep must know this first of all about their pastors: if the pastor is faithful, and if he ministers well in word and sacrament, it is to the praise and glory of Jesus, for it is in this way, and in no other way that Jesus takes care of his sheep.  Whom they visit, he visits; whom they wash, he washes; whom they feed, he feeds, and what they are, he is; the Good Shepherd, caring for his sheep.

The Gospel and sermon, with the hymn of the day including a special choral section.

Jesus Appears on the Shore

In St. John 21 is Jesus' third appearance to his disciples, and the only one in Galilee.  Here he brings Peter's denials to mind when he asks three times if he loves him, but also forgives him and tells him to feed his sheep.  This shepherding theme happens to provide a helpful prelude to the coming Sunday, Good Shepherd Sunday.  The sermon.

Quasimodogeniti: place your doubts in Thomas's heart

Where was Thomas?  We don't know, but it is reasonable to suppose that he should have been with the others, if for no other reason than to commiserate with them.  We need one another in difficult times; we always need one another for encouragement.  This is one reason we attend worship: not only to receive the gifts of God (though that is the chief reason), but also to encourage one another, just by being there.  But Thomas was not.

Moreover, he didn't believe when  the others told him of the resurrection, though he should have.  For Jesus himself had said this on more than one occasion.

So Thomas did not deserve to see Jesus for himself the following Sunday; Jesus' appearance also to him is pure grace.  He wants Thomas to believe.

He also wants you to believe, and today you can see that your unworthiness does not impede his coming to you; and today you may also take all your doubts and deposit them into Thomas' heart, where they can be dispersed, even as his own skepticism was done away: "My Lord and my God," he cries.

The sermon.

The Emmaus Road

Here Jesus brings light to darkness and hope to despair.  The sermon.