Feedin 5000

Feeding 5000

Our gospel readings in the next 4 weeks are from St. John chapter 6. They tell of the feeding of the 5000 and the meaning of that miracle. The feeding is reported in all 4 gospels. All say the day was ending, all have 5 loaves and two fish, all have the people sit down on the grass to be fed, all were satisfied, and 12 baskets of broken pieces were collected.  St. John adds that it was near the Passover, but the grass indicates it was spring time. I’ve been in that area in the summer, and things are dry and brown.

St. Mark 8 and St. Matthew 12 also tell of another later feeding of 4000 with 7 loaves. Jesus’ feeding large crowds with limited resources was an important part of the church’s memory of Jesus’ ministry. That memory, and Jesus’ explicit command to feed the hungry and heal the sick has inspired many soup kitchens and hospitals, including our own weekly food collection for hungry people of Avery County.

Martin Luther’s sermon on this text includes a medieval allegory. The grass is the Jewish people, from Isaiah 40, “all flesh is grass.” From the Jewish people the Word of God came forth, for salvation is of the Jews. The five loaves signify the Word of God as we receive it by the five senses. The loaves are in the basket as the word of God is contained in the Holy scriptures. That as Jesus took them in his hands to bless and increase them signifies that by Christ’s word and deeds, not by our own deeds or reason, are the Scriptures explained, rightly understood and preached. The two fish are the example and witness of the patriarchs and prophets shared with the people of God. The 12 baskets of fragments are the writings of the 12 apostles, the fulfilment of the writings of the Old Testament.

Allegorical interpretation has fallen out of favor. We prefer a more naturalistic interpretation. A popular comment on the feeding is that when Jesus called the people to sit down in groups he formed immediate communities in which those who had come prepared with some food shared with those who had not. So Jesus teaches us to share, to help people in need. That is true, and we see examples of it frequently. I remember the pictures of the Houston flood and people being rescued by volunteers in fishing boats. We contribute to needs, and as I do so I hope others will be there for me in my time of need.

But there is more to the story of the feeding than simply human sharing. Another account of feeding many with limited resources is in today’s reading from the Elisha miracle stories in 2Kings. Baal-shalishah means Lord of the three, and is identified as an Arab village in the West Bank where three dry valleys come together. On the surrounding hills are new Jewish settlements. God continues to provide – in this case five-fold – 20 loaves for 100 people. 

St. John’s report of the feeding of the 5000 makes the connection to Passover. Passover was God’s powerful action to set the people free from slavery in Egypt,  followed by God’s continuing to feed the liberated people of Israel with manna in the desert.

 God fed the people physically with manna and God continues to feed us spiritually in Holy Communion. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast.”

At the Last Supper the disciples surely remembered the miraculous feeding. We’re not told what words Jesus used to ask God’s blessing on the 5 loaves, but at the Last Supper we are told that he said, “This is my body which is broken for you,” and “This is my blood of the new covenant.” Jesus added, “Do this in remembrance of me.” And we have been doing this – taking bread and wine, asking God’s blessing on them, breaking the bread and sharing the cup – ever since.

The 5000 sat down on the grass.  We come together in churches. They were mentally and spiritually fed by Jesus’ words and physically and spiritually fed by the bread he had blessed. We are mentally and spiritually fed by Jesus’s words, and we are physically and spiritually fed by the bread on which we ask his blessing.  

Martin Luther ended his sermon on the feeding of the 5000 with words that continue to be as true today as they were 500 years ago. “We feed on Christ, for “he alone makes satisfaction, delivers from sin and death, gives peace and fullness of joy, and does it all of his own free will, that we may know that the Gospel is devised and bestowed, not through our own merit, but out of pure grace.”  Amen.

Evil spirits

Pentecost 7 Proper 9 Evil spirits

          .Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. That authority over unclean spirits Jesus gave to the 12 continues today in the church and in all Christian people today.  By his death and resurrection Jesus finally defeated the power of evil and at Pentecost he gave the church the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and power. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in baptism, that gift of the Holy Spirit offers us both knowledge of God’s truth to be able to discern the unclean spirits, and also God’s gift of spiritual power to defeat them.

We rejoice that by his death and resurrection Jesus has won the final victory. In the last day when he comes to judge Jesus’ victory will be evident to all creation. Until that day we have the victory, and we have opportunity to witness to Christ’s victory in our lives and in our relationships.

The evil spirits continue to tempt us.  We frequently hear stories of people being led astray. Some of the evil spirits are the spirits of rage and racism. The Washington Post recently reported about two 15 year old boys invited to swim at a neighborhood pool in Dorchester County, South Carolina. As they approached the pool a woman jumped out of the water, shoved one of the boys in the chest and yelled at him, “Get out! Get out! Get out! Now!” and threatened to call 911. The paper says one of the boys managed to record the woman and the encounter. He showed his parents the video and they called the sheriff’s office. The police report calls “it an “unprovoked assault” and says that the woman  “is clearly the aggressor in the assault even going as far as to continue to assault the victim as he was walking away from her.”  When officers showed up at her home, she attacked them and bit one’s arm, breaking the skin. She was arrested and released on $65,000 bail. The woman was white; the boys were not.

We all remember segregation and times before cell phone videos, times when parents would not have called, and the sheriff would not have responded and certainly would not have made an arrest. As a society we’ve made progress, but we still have a ways to go. Unclean spirits of rage and racism continue with us. But Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.  In our baptisms we receive from Jesus the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and power. The Holy Spirit gives us knowledge of God’s truth to be able to discern the unclean spirits, and the spiritual power to defeat them. We rejoice that Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection have won the final victory.

A few years after the Council of Nicea (325 AD) an Egyptian hermit (Evagrius Ponticus) organized an understanding of 7 general categories of evil spirits. We can remember them by a mnemonic device – WASPLEG. WASPLEG. Wrath, Avarice, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, Gluttony. He also organized 7 alternative Christian virtues, gifts of the Holy Spirit as spiritual antidotes to the temptations of these evil spirits.

The virtue that turns away Wrath is Patience. Avarice Charity. Sloth Dilligence, Pride Humility, Lust Chastity, Envy Gratitude, Gluttony Temperance.  CDHCGT not as easy to remember.

Different spirits tempt different people at different times in our lives. Lust bothered me more as an adolescent than it has since I married. Age and gratitude have tempered envy. Pride continues to tempt. It takes a real act of faith to live out the truth that the God who made me loves me. He wants what is best for me. So I do much better when I seek to know and do his will for me.

So remember we have the victory over the evil spirits who tempt us. We have the tools of spiritual victory. So let us use them.

When we are tempted to irrational anger, to Wrath, let us seek to exercise patience. The woman in the South Carolina pool did not have to come out of the water and yell at the boy. She certainly did not have to bite the police officer. She could have avoided arrest, bail, and publicity by exercising patience.

When tempted to Greed, let us remember our corresponding need to give to those in need. When tempted to let someone else do what needs to be done so we can complain let us pray for the gift of truth to see what we can and should do.  All of us are continually tempted by the evil spirit of pride. We can pray for a right understanding of ourselves as God’s loved children, guided to seek to know and do only his will.  When tempted by lust, let us remember God’s love poured out on us and share his love in right relationships. When tempted by envy, let us give God thanks for his many blessings in our lives. And when tempted by gluttony, push back, seek temperance.  

.Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. That authority is ours. Praise God for Christ’s victory

St, John Baptist

St. John Baptist June 24 18

Today Lutherans and Roman Catholics celebrate John the Baptist’s birth today. Oher churches celebrate it tomorrow. We give thanks to God for John’s birth, life and ministry. This is the hinge of the year – 6 months to Christmas! Since Christmas the days have been getting longer; now they will gradually get shorter. Christians see John as the last of the Old Testament prophets who point us to Christ. John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, a renewed commitment to the Law of Moses. John’s baptism pointed toward baptism in Christ, a new life of grace in the power and truth of the Holy Spirit.

          We learn about John’s birth in St. Luke, Chapter 1. John’s father Zechariah was a priest of the Old Covenant. He served at the Jerusalem Temple twice a year. So John the Baptist is the patron saint of clergy kids! His mother Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron, so of a priestly family. Like Abraham and Sarah, they were old and childless. Serbing in the Temple Zechariah received a vision of the archangel Gabriel, but because he did not believe he was struck dumb. Despite Zechariah’s affliction Elizabeth conceived (marital nonverbal communication). In Elizabeth’s 6^th month Gabriel announced to Mary the virgin that Mary also would bear a son. Mary’s response is at the core of the Christian life, “Be it unto me according ro thy will,” or in two words, “Yes, Lord.”

          God is a God of love, a God of freedom, a God of grace. God is good; God is trustworthy. God loves us and we can trust our lives to God’s goodness and God’s love.  We are not alone; God is always present in and with us. The prophets revealed God’s love, God’s freedom, God’s grace. Fast forward 30 years to chapter 3 of St. Luke. John the Baptist appeared at the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.

          God chooses to use simple things to convey spiritual grace: water for baptism, bread and wine for communion. Marriage is a handshake contract, oil heals, hands on head confirm and ordain, a word forgives. 

          Lutheran and Episcopal churches teach that the ceremonial law of the Old Testament does not bind the church. (Article 28 Augsburg Confession Tappert p.91 line 59,  Article 7 of the 39)  The Jewish community interprets Leviticus 15  to require immersion in a ritual bath, called a mikvah, with this prayer:  “Barukh atah Ado-nai Elohenu melekh ha’olam asher kideshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al ha’tevillah. Blessed are You, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us regarding the immersion.” Orthodox Jewish women go to the mikvah each month after their menstrual period. Orthodox Jewish men go at least once a year before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The Orthodox recite the prayer in the mikvah before immersing themselves. But converts to Judaism immerse themselves, then say the prayer and then immerse themselves again. The immersion, the ritual bath, is the outward and visible sign of accepting the responsibilities of the Law of Moses.  The prayer is the sign of obedience to the Law.

          One way to understand John’s baptism is that sin so separates us from God and from God’s people that we need to be reconverted to God; we need to ask God to renew our membership in the people of Israel, the people who know and obey God’s law. This was radical teaching. It emphasized personal commitment, not passive acceptance of membership in a privileged group, membership by birth. It said we can lose our birthright and need to claim it again. 

          Let me finish with John’s story and get back to his baptism. John went from preaching to meddling. St. Luke says he condemned the ruler Herod Antipas for marrying his brother’s wife and Herod cast him in prison and eventually beheaded him.  Another writer agrees he was imprisoned but says he was killed to prevent a rebellion.

          In St. John’s gospel chapter 4 we learn that Jesus’ disciples continued John’s baptismal ministry. Acts tells of John’s disciples in Asia Minor. John’s baptism was a promise of a new life of commitment to obey the Law of Moses, the moral law and the ceremonial law. It both a sign of repentance and also a promise of a new birth into the community of Israel. But John also promised the baptism of Jesus. “After me comes one who is mightier than I, I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8). The baptism of Jesus adds to washing away of sin and rebirth into the community of obedience the third element of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth and power.

          Both the Prayer Book Catechism, and Luther’s Catechism tell us Christian baptism “works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe. Baptism is a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.”  

          So as we celebrate today the birth of John the Baptist, let us give thanks to God for John’s  life and ministry, give thanks to God for Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and give thsnks for God’s gift to us of new and eternal life in holy baptism, for the forgiveness of sins and the truth and power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.    

Trinity Athanasian Creed 18

The Athanasian Creed  Book of Concord  Tappert translation from Latin, 1959, pp 19-20.
   Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all else, hold the true Catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish for eternity.
   This is the true Christian faith, that we worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God
   without confusing the persons, nor dividing the divine substance.
   For the Father is one person of the Father, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is still another,
   but there is one Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, equal in glory, and co-equal in Majesty. .
   What the Father is, that is the Son, and that is the Holy Spirit.
   the Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated;
   the Father is unlimited, the Son is unlimited, the Holy Spirit is unlimited;
   the Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal,
   and yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal,
   just as there are not three who are uncreated and who are unlimited, but there is one who is uncreated, and unlimited.
   Likewise the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty,
   and yet they are not three who are almighties, but there is one who is almighty.
   So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God.
   and yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
   So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord
   and yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.
   For just as we are compelled by Catholic truth to acknowledge each person by himself to be God and Lord,
   so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say that there are three Gods, or three Lords.
   The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten by anybody.
   The Son was not made or created, but was begotten by the Father.
   The Holy Spirit was not made or created or begotten, but proceeds from the Father and the Son
   Accordingly there is one Father and not three Fathers; one Son and not three Sons;  one Holy Spirit and not three Holy Spirits.
   And among these three persons none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another;
   but all three persons are coequal and coeternal, and accordingly, as has been stated above, three persons are to be worshipped in one Godhead and one God is to be worshipped in three persons.
   Whoever wants to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.

   It is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became man,

   for this is the right faith, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at once God and Man;
   he is God, begotten before the ages of the substance of the Father, and he is man, born in the world of the substance of his mother,
   perfect God and perfect man, with reasonable soul and human flesh,
   equal to the Father with respect to his Godhead; and inferior to the Father with respect to his manhood.
   Although he is God and Man, he is not two Christs but one Christ;
   one, that is to say, not by changing the Godhead into flesh but by taking on the humanity into God;
   one, indeed, not by confusion of substance, but by unity in one person.
   For just as the reasonable soul and the flesh are one man, so God and man are one Christ;
   who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose from the dead,
   ascended into heaven, is seated on the right hand of the Father, whence he shall come to judge the quick and the  dead.
  At his coming all men shall rise with their bodies and give an account of their own deeds.
   Those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will go into everlasting fire.
   This is the true Catholic Faith. Unless a man believe this firmly and faithfully, he cannot be saved. 

Sermon:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

The Bible tells us that God loves us and that Jesus death and resurrection save to eternal life all who will believe in him.  Jesus saves, and that is fact.  How Jesus saves is theology, human faith seeking understanding of God’s love. Some theology leads to life-giving truth, but some bad theology leads us to error in faith and to bad behavior in life.

On Trinity Sunday we celebrate God’s love in creation; we celebrate Jesus’ saving grace, and we celebrate the power and truth of the Holy Spirit. 

Let me begin with some history: For almost 300 years it was dangerous to believe in Jesus. From the time of Emperor Nero in 65 to Emperor Decius in 250 persecution was local and sporadic, something like the persecution Christians face today in the Middle East, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Indonesia. But in 250 Decius tried to fix increasing conflict and division in the Roman Empire by an empire-wide loyalty oath. In the governor’s office a small fire burned before a statue of the emperor as a god. You were to buy a pinch of incense and put it on the fire and get a certificate you had done so. When many Christian leaders refused to accept the emperor as divine they were executed, and for the next 50 years a hot political issue was how to deal with Christians – persecute or tolerate? The last persecution was by Diocletian in 303.  Diocletian tried with some success to destroy all copies of the New Testament. That was too much. The social and political situation flipped. Christianity became popular. People came to faith and sought to understand. Lots of questions: “Who is God?”  “How does Jesus save?”

In response the church developed the creeds.  These use Greek and Roman philosophical language to state a paradox. God is one God in three persons – the Father who creates, Jesus the Son who redeems, the Holy Spirit of power and truth who works in us and the world to bring us to new and eternal life in God. Jesus saves because he is fully and completely God and at the same time fully and completely human.

It was complicated and messy. In 325 Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria led a church council to adopt the Nicene Creed. About 150 years later in southern France his teaching was restated. In your bulletin is Pastor Theodore Tappert’s 1969 translation from Latin of the Athanasian Creed. This theological political statement is part of our heritage this Trinity Sunday.

Lutheran princes and city representatives presented the Augsburg Confession to Emperor Charles V in 1530. Fifty years later, in 1580, Lutheran theologians, princes and cities agreed on a Book of Concord - the Augsburg Confession and the commentaries on it. The Book of Concord says the Athanasian Creed is one of “the three chief symbols or Creeds of the Christian Faith which are commonly used in the church.”

God has chosen to reveal himself to us. The Bible is a trustworthy record of God’s revelation. At the bush that burned and was not consumed, God told Moses, “I am that I am.” The fundamental assertion is in Hebrew Shema, Israel, Adonai elohenu, Adonai ehad, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

God is one, and we are one. In a world that tries to divide and conquer, we struggle for integrity. We are created to be one person, a unity of body and soul, one person committed to one truth in one God. We play many roles, but dividing ourselves up into pieces leads eventually to madness. Spiritually healthy people are at unity and peace with ourselves and with the one God.

So the Athanasian Creed teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in glory, co-equal in Majesty, uncreated, unlimited, and eternal, and one. It teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, at once God and Man, perfect God and perfect man, by taking the humanity into God, unity in one person, God and man one Christ.

The Creed ends, when Jesus comes in the last day, “all men shall rise with their bodies and give an account of their own deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will go into everlasting fire.”

As Reformation Christians we know that the only good deed we can do is to receive the faith offered us by God’s grace. Romans 3:23-25 “²³ since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”  

So this Trinity Sunday, we open ourselves to God’s gift of grace and receive by faith the gift of salvation to eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Thanks be to God! Amen.  

Pentecost 18

At Pentecost we remember God’s gift of his Holy Spirit to Jesus’ spiritual body the church. We are baptized in God’s Holy Spirit to become God’s holy people and to proclaim Jesus’ salvation to Avery County and to the world. God grant the world may say of us, “we hear them tell in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

Pentecost is the Greek word for the Jewish feast of Shavuot - 50 days after Passover. In Judea the barley harvest began in April at Passover, the winter wheat harvest began in late May at Shavout or Pentecost.  The Exodus is remembered at Passover, and God’s giving the Law on Sinai is remembered at Shavout or Pentecost. God has blessed the people of the Law, both Jews and Christians, with knowledge of God’s perfect will eternally expressed in his unchanged and unchanging Law, knowledge and power received by God’s grace through the faith God gives.

On Pentecost in Jesus’ time and now devout  Jewish men spend the night studying the Bible and eating dairy foods - lots of cheesecake – to remember the manna in the desert while the women prepare a feast for family and visitors. The Passover seder meal ends, “Next year in Jerusalem!” Devout Jews in the many countries to which the people of Israel have been dispersed dream of celebrating Passover in Jerusalem. In Jesus’ time it was a long, expensive, difficult trip: people came in March for Passover and stayed the 7 weeks visiting family, worshipping in the Temple, seeing the sights, until the weather got hot. Then they ate the Pentecost feast and headed home.

Jesus’ disciples gathered for the Pentecost feast with the many new believers in Jesus. They talked about Jesus and his free and freeing teaching about the Law. Traditional interpretation had made the Law complicated and difficult to observe. The disciples remembered that Jesus had quoting the summary of the Law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ (Deuteronomy 6:5) This is the first and great commandment And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Leviticus 19:18) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

We confess that we do not keep even these two commandments, nor the 10 commandments of Sinai, nor the 613 commandments the Jewish scholars found in scripture. We know that our efforts to obey the Law do not save us from sin and spiritual death. We are saved by God’s grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus, grace received in faith. We are justified by God in Jesus without the Law, and then God the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth shows us how to return thanks to God for the gifts of justification and salvation. We return thanks as we seek to obey the law and to become the holy people God calls us to be. We cannot obey God in our own spiritual strength, but with God’s power and God’s strength given by his Holy Spirit we can grow in faith to love God and obey him.

On the first Pentecost the disciples remembered that Jesus had promised them the Spirit of Truth. They had come to know the truth of Jesus. They remembered Jesus had promised them the Spirit of Power. They knew Jesus’ power because he had defeated the great enemy death by rising from the dead. And at the Pentecost feast they remembered the giving of the law at Sinai, Moses on the mountain top, the fire lighting up the sky, the powerful wind almost blowing the people away.

They remembered Jesus teaching at the Ascension 10 days before when Jesus “opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”   They remembered Jesus’ teaching and so on that first Pentecost they studied Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit. What was this Spirit going to be like? How would life be different with Jesus no longer physically present with them?

Then suddenly came a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind, . . . tongues as of fire appeared among them, and “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” From Iran in the east to Lybia in north Africa, from the north coast of Turkey to south Yemen and all the places in between, “we hear them tell in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

Professor Bruce Rigdon tells of being in Russia to make a movie about the Christian church under Communism. Mikael was their minder, arranging interviews, getting churches opened, making the project possible. After the last night’s farewell party Mikael told Rigdon, “You showed me parts of my Russian heritage I never knew; I had never been in a church until you came to make this movie.” He fell silent. Rigdon moved toward the door, tired and ready for bed. Mikael stopped him and said, “You are a Christian?” He knew Rigdon was ordained and a seminary professor, but he had to ask, “You are a Christian?” Rigdon said, “Yes, I am a Christian.” Mikael said, “It was not true when I said I’ve never been in a church. I was once but I don’t remember it. My parents are atheists and party members, but my grandmother was a Christian. One day when I was an infant she took me to church and I was baptized. Tell me now, I’m just curious, you understand, but for curiosity’s sake, tell me, do you think anything happened when I was baptized?” 

The Jewish custom is to spend the night of Pentecost in study of the bible and prayer. Rigdon and Mikael spent that Pentecost night in study of the bible and prayer. An American Christian in Russia with a young man raised in Communist atheism, “We hear them tell in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

The same Holy Spirit who came to the disciples at Pentecost comes to us when we are baptized and believe.

St. Paul wrote to the contentious church at Corinth that the Holy Spirit gives many gifts, but they are given in the one body of Jesus Christ.

We are all baptized into one body, filled with one Holy Spirit just as the disciples were on that first Pentecost.   

We are filled with the Holy Spirit to remember Jesus’ teaching, “Love God, love neighbor.”  

We are filled with the Holy Spirit to keep the commandments and grow into the holy people God calls us to be. We are filled with the Holy Spirit to know the truth of Jesus and witness to that truth in the world Jesus redeemed by his death and resurrection.

We are filled with the Holy Spirit to witness to the power of Jesus who defeated death and gives us new life.

We are filled with the Holy Spirit so that the whole world, and everyone we know may truly say, “we hear them tell in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” Amen.

Easter 3 Repentance to forgiveness

Easter 3 18 Repentance to forgiveness

Today’s gospel ends, “Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

In both gospels, St. John and St. Luke, Jesus appears to offer “Peace” and the forgiveness of sins. We share the peace of Christ, and in Christ’s peace receive his grace and his power to be forgiven and to forgive. Our justification by grace through faith includes both receiving and offering forgiveness. We are forgiven sinners and because we are forgiven we receive the truth and power of the Holy Spirit to be repentant sinners.

In his lectures on the Epistle to the Galatians, Luther said, “Thus a Christian man is righteous and a sinner at the same time (simul iustus et peccator), holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God.” Luther calls this a paradox. A paradox is a true statement that appears to be logically inconsistent.  The Christian church affirms that Jesus is both fully and completely God and fully and completely human. We affirm that we worship one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Spiritual paradoxes remind us that life includes more than one dimension of existence. Literal-minded people find life difficult; things are never quite what they seem. I talked last week about forgiveness, and I want to do that again.

The Biblical Hebrew and Greek words we translate forgive have the common meaning of “take off” or “let go.” For a children’s talk I used to put a backpack on a child and one by one fill it with bricks until the child could barely stand. Then I’d lift the back pack off and ask the child, “How does it feel?” One child obliged with, “I feel like I could fly!”  That’s the feeling we hope for in being forgiven ourselves, and in forgiving others.

Christian forgiveness is turning over to God. We give up feelings of condemnation, both self-condemnation when we are forgiven and condemning others when we forgive them. 

Let’s not confuse forgiving with condoning. By God’s grace we can forgive bad behavior, our own bad behavior and others’ bad behavior, but by God’s justice bad behavior remains bad behavior, subject to divine and human righteous judgment. Because God is infinite, God offers us immediately a restored relationship of love and trust. But we are limited, limited by time and space. Restoring human relationships takes time and effort. Trust, once broken, is not easily or quickly restored. We have the obligation of prudence in restoring relationships. We do no one any good by confusing forgiving bad behavior and condoning bad behavior.  We have done what we have done and we have to live with the natural consequences of our behavior – and the natural consequences of others’ behavior toward us. 

Repairing relationships requires repentance. Repentance is turning away from sin and turning to God and to God’s will for our lives. Repentance is the proper response to forgiveness. We are forgiven sinners and therefore we are repentant sinners.  I close with a story.

In Jerusalem the Holocaust museum YadVaShem is surrounded by trees, “the Garden of the Righteous.” Each tree has a plaque with names of those who sought to save Jews. One so honored is a Dutch woman, Corrie Ten Boom. Her family hid Jews, were betrayed by a neighbor, and sent to Ravensbruck where Corrie’s sister Betsie died. After the war Corrie offered a home for former prisoners and wrote a book, The Hiding Place, from which I quote (pp 214-215).

“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former SS man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing centre at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message Fräulein”, he said “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your Forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.” 

Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Easter 2B 18 Peace and forgiving

“These are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”   In Easter Season our first lesson is from the Acts of the Apostles. The second lesson this year is from the First Epistle of St. John - last year from St. Peter, next year from the Revelation to St. John.  The theme of St. John’s epistles is light and love. “God is light” and “God is love.”  “. . . if we walk in the light . . . we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.”

“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” In the old Prayer Book tradition this is one of the Comfortable Words after Confession and Absolution. Jesus Christ is our advocate, the one who speaks for us on judgment day. Jesus speaks for us - we are guilty and pardoned. By his death Jesus has set us free from sin and God’s judgment for all our sins – “for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Jesus’ death and resurrection was not only for Jesus’ disciples, but for every one in every place and every age who admits sin and claims the pardon. I’ve sat in court and heard the state’s attorney offer a plea bargain. The defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offence and the more serious charges are dismissed. The judge says to the defendant, “Do you accept this agreement, and are you in fact guilty of the crime to which you plead?” The required answer is “yes, I am guilty.” So say we all. We all are guilty of willful disobedience of God’s law in some respect at some time. But “if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

One of the major problems of our society and church is pervasive denial of the reality of personal sin. We all want to focus on our good intentions and ignore our morally ambivalent and sometimes egregiously evil actions.  The Jesus Prayer in the Eastern Orthodox tradition is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Only as we become aware of our own sinfulness can we accept the wonderful grace of our risen Savior. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

In today’s gospel Jesus comes to the disciples gathered traditionally in the upper room where they had celebrated the last supper. The doors were locked; the mob was still out there looking for more blood. Jesus comes; he offers the disciples his peace, and in that peace Jesus shares his power to forgive sins.

By Jesus’ death and resurrection, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, our sins, and the sins of the whole world, have been put away forever. Our sins are washed away by the blood shed by Jesus on the cross.

Baptism is the beginning. The water of baptism washes away sins and every time we confess our sins we renew the spiritual effect of our baptism. And where water baptism is not possible we recognize a “baptism by desire.”.

The risen Jesus shared with the disciples his authority of the cross to forgive sins against God, and he  shares with all Christians his essential power to forgive sins committed against ourselves. “If you forgive the sins of any (against you), they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any (against you), they are retained (to you).” We all sin against God’s presence in our own lives, and we sin against God’s presence in the lives of others. We are all sometimes sinned against. Evil has been done to the dignity and honor of God’s creation in our lives. Jesus gives us the choice. We can hold to the memory of being sinned against, or we can forgive. We can continue to resent, or we can forgive. We say in the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The contemporary version of the prayer has “sins” – “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

The gift of being able to forgive sins against us, to let go of resentments, is a gift of the Holy Spirit by the resurrected Jesus. It is also hard spiritual work.  G.K. Chesterton once said, “Jesus commands us to forgive our neighbors and forgive our enemies. Frequently they are the same persons.”  We need to forgive over and over again, as often as the resentment comes back to bother us. When we have forgiven the sins committed by others against us we also can forgive the sins we have committed against ourselves, the things we have done to harm ourselves even when we knew they were wrong when we did them, When we forgive God gives us his peace, and in his peace  the wisdom, the grace, and the power to change, to do things differently. For that we thank God.

          The peace of God in Jesus made possible Thomas’ radical change from skepticism to belief, from “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe” to “my Lord and my God!”

           “These are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”