Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this the fifth Sunday of Easter we are encouraged by God’s Word to desire those great and wonderful things Jesus has promised us, even to our inheritance of eternal life. In John chapter 14 we hear the disciple Philip’s response to Jesus’ announcement that nobody comes to the Father except through me. Philip says: “Lord show us the Father and it is enough for us.” Philip seems to be saying that if Jesus shows them the Father, that is all they could ever hope for and want in life. How lucky they were to meet Jesus so that they could be shown the Father. Yet Jesus is not a means to an end. Jesus is more than the bridge who takes us to heaven or takes us to the Father. Jesus is himself the Way the Truth and the Life. He is the way for us now more than ever as we endure the ravages of our fallen world day by day.
We sell our faith short if we do not desire more from Jesus than a safe passage to eternal life. We are called as his children to ask for far more- to seek to be with Him above all else. It is for this reason that Jesus says: “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” We are to ask for more than just enough faith to get by, but for all of the riches and joys of life in Christ. And even today as we wait on the reopening of our churches, we should settle for nothing less than the fullness of our life in Christ. In this time of need, we cry to the Lord for help and we seek a return to the sanctuary of rest that we find in worship. Listen to the words of the Introit for this Sunday, as the words of Psalm 30 speak of our complete dependence on the Lord for deliverance and life:
Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!
I will extol you, O Lord, for you
have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O Lord my God, I cried
to you for help, and you
have healed me.
3 O Lord, you have brought up my
soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the
pit. 4 Sing
praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his
anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the
night, but joy comes with the morning. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to
the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Praise the LORD! Sing to
the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!
For those of us who are able to gather for worship on May 24th the Lord willing, we will sing to the Lord a new song indeed. It might be a bit of a stretch to say that before the pandemic we took worship for granted, as we certainly have always valued worship as a church. But we never saw a time coming where we would not be able to meet for so many weeks. Surely we will look at worship differently now. Through this trial and prolonged fast from both worship and the reception of the Lord’s Supper, how grateful we will be to worship again, how passionate will be our desire to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good.’
Some of you have reflected to me about missing out on celebrating Easter Sunday for the first time in your lives. In the same manner, never in my life as an adult have I experienced so many days without the reception of the Lord’s Supper as a central part of my life. Last Sunday we reflected on the illustration of the worship life of the early church: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Clearly celebration of the Lord’s Supper was foundational to their meeting. Notice also Acts 20:7 takes it for granted that he First day of the week is the day to celebrate the Lord’s Supper: “On the first day of the week , when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them , intending to depart on the next day, and prolonged his speech until midnight.”
During the Reformation the meaning of the Lord’s Supper was corrected from the false teaching of the Mass as a sacrifice. Instead the emphasis was that on every Lord’s day we receive the gift of our Lord coming to us. The 24th article of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession describes this practice: “Among us the Mass is celebrated every Lord’s day and on other festivals, when the sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it, after they have been examined and absolved.”
As the role of Christians in society has made the news over questions of public gatherings and public health priorities, the church has been encouraged by governing authorities to meet digitally and online instead of in person. Some churches with drive in services even faced opposition from local governments. The church has rightly observed the role of obedience to authorities according to the Fourth Commandment. However, the church cannot afford to change her views on what is important about worship because of what is convenient in this time of pandemic. Online worship has been an important resource for our church in proclaiming God’s Word to our nation in a time when we have been isolated from one another, but we need to be honest that it is not fully worship.
We are receiving pastoral care and comfort and reassurance through online worship, but we are not receiving God’s gifts in a bodily manner. We are not gathered together as the body of Christ, we are not joining our voices in worship, and most important of all, we are not receiving our Lord’s Body and Blood present in the bread and wine for the forgiveness of our sins. Technology provides convenience, but it must not be cited by governing authorities as a convenience that justifies our ongoing refraining from gathering for worship.
Listen to the descriptions of what worship is in both our current hymnal Lutheran Service Book (2006) and previous hymnal Lutheran Worship (1982)
Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise… The rhythm of our worship is from him to us, and then from us back to him. He gives his gifts, and together we receive and extol them. We build one another up as we speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Our Lord gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink. (Page 6. Lutheran Worship)
Our Lord is the Lord who serves. Jesus Christ came into the flesh not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. On the cross He offered Himself as a spotless sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. Through His perfect life and death, He accomplished forgiveness and salvation for all before the Father in heaven. By His empty tomb and ascension into heaven , He declared His victory over sin and death to all the world. Seated now at the Father’s right hand , He graciously serves His church with the gifts of salvation. On the Last Day, He will come again to gather His elect from every nation to celebrate the fest that that will have no end.
Our Lord serves us today through His holy Word and Sacraments. Through these means, He comes among us to deliver His forgiveness and salvation, freeing us from our sins and strengthening us for service to one another and to the world. At holy Baptism, He puts his name upon us, pours His Holy Spirit into our hearts, and rescues us from sin, death and the devil. Through Holy Absolution, He pronounces His forgiveness again and again. With His holy Word, written in scripture and preached into our ears, He daily proclaims His abiding love for us through all the joys and sorrows of life in this world. In His Holy Supper, He gives us His own body and blood to eat and drink as a priceless gift to nourish and strengthen us in body and soul. (Lutheran Service Book p. viii)
Pray with me the Prayer of the Day:
O God, You make the minds of Your faithful people to be of one will. Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
We will as members of our congregation approach a return to worship on our own time schedule according to our particular circumstances in life. Yet through our Lord are minds have been made as one will. We have prayed that we will fix our hearts on Jesus as the one constant in our ever changing world and the one true joy.
Listen now to the Epistle reading for the 5th Sunday of Easter 1Peter 2:2-10:
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in
Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will
not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
We have indeed faced many changes in our world in recent months and we are now preparing to learn different ways to resume things we used to do as a culture- the top of which is gathering for worship. Through all of these trials we know that the only way we can make it is to fix our hearts on Jesus. Our society has adopted plans of sheltering to wait out a virus outbreak. Yet now it appears the outbreak may not go away until a vaccine is developed, and even that is not a guarantee of effectiveness. Our life of following Jesus is more than hiding to avoid danger. We are not called to be reckless, but we ought not to give up gathering for worship when we can gather more safely for worship than when we are out getting groceries. As the reading from 1Peter affirms, we have indeed tasted that the Lord is good, and we desire to receive more and more of the gifts of salvation, united as a chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation- we are a spiritual house built on the foundation of Christ.
From the beginning Jesus intended that we should be the bricks and stones that build the church, held together by His Word. Our Baptism liturgy quotes verse 9 remarking how we are baptized into God’s name so that we can proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. In this era of uncertainty and distress we have been built up to proclaim the mercy of Jesus to our world. We have been built and designed for such a time as this!
We are about to begin an entirely new chapter in the life of the church. We will need to be careful likely for a painfully long time in how we handle our gathering. We will have face masks and spread out through the sanctuary in where we sit (slightly more than we already were doing for reasons unrelated to infection risks). Our procedure for celebrating the lord’s Supper will be different (although still the same body and blood of Our Lord given to us.”
Many in our world would tell us Christians that we should not gather at all and only watch services at home for months and months to come. Worship is not seen as an essential plan for rebuilding our economy (although certainly has been vocally valued by some of our leaders in government). “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious” We come to Jesus to offer spiritual sacrifices, to live and abide in Jesus as one body. Our coming is a bold confession of our faith, that we would rather live in the small risk of an infection than never go to meet Jesus in worship again. (I call this a small risk because of the precautions we intend to take such as distance and masks, without precautions gathering for worship would be considered a large risk).
Earlier in the course of our collective shelter in place, as we looked forward to the return to normal in our nation, there was a sense that with a little bit of waiting things could simply resume as they had before. As the wait has gone on longer and longer it is normal to talk about what things we miss and look forward to having in our lives again. We look forward to sports, local travel and shopping and recreation activities among other things. God’s Word helps us to see the truth that getting these things back that we missed is not the point.
Getting closer to Jesus is what we truly desire. In whatever way that our circumstances in society improve in the coming months we should be able to see how the trials and crosses we have faced have brought us closer to Jesus. We should be able to approach our faith with renewed purpose and focus and life. If we are not changed as a church as far as desiring more to be with Jesus in Word and Sacrament through all that we have experienced in recent months of isolation away from worship, then we have numbed ourselves into living according to our culture. Listen now to the good news of our gospel reading, listen to the poetic words of the Alleluia verse, words of hearts changed by faith and made alive in Christ:
Alleluia. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. Alleluia. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Alleluia.
John 14:1-14
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
