The Congregation at Prayer - April 22-27

For the Fourth Week of Easter (April 22-27, 2024)

Invocation: In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: John 15:5 – ”I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #633 “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing”

Hymns for Sunday: 825, 633, 622, 486, 691, 818

Readings for the Week: [The readings for Thursday-Saturday are the Scriptures for this coming Sunday.]

Monday: Psalm 150

Praise God! What does that mean? Where? Why? How?

Tuesday: 2 Timothy 4:5-18

Paul is writing to Timothy. Has his life been easy? What has happened to him? What encouragement does Paul give? What confidence does he have, in spite all that happened to him?

Wednesday: Mark 16:14-20

Commemoration of St. Mark. How did Mark fulfill Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel? What signs would Jesus do to accompany their preaching? Why?

Thursday: Acts 8:26–40

What two things did the eunuch need to come to faith? How is what happened here still happening today? Where?

Friday: 1 John 4:1-21

How do we “test the spirits?” What does the true Spirit of God do and work in us? What do false spirits do and sound like? Why are false spirits so popular and easy to follow?

Saturday: John 15:1-8

What fruit does Jesus want us to bear? How can we? Whose work is it, really? What must we do to bear fruit?

The Catechism - The Creed, the Third Article [Part 1] – I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Collect for the Week: O God, You make the minds of Your faithful 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. Amen.

The Prayers:  Please pray for . . .

+ yourself and for all in need (remembering especially those on our prayer list).

+ God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance for our congregational president, Pete Brondos.

+ the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, and provision for the Luther Academy.

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer from the Catechism.

Now joyfully go about your day (or to bed) in good cheer, child of God!

Collect for the Week © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Service Book Hymn License: 110019268

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“The Good Shepherd We Need”

Text: John 10:11-18; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; Acts 4:1-12

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Do we even need a Good Shepherd anymore? Or a Good Shepherd Sunday? It’s kind of old fashioned, don’t you think? I mean, who’s even seen a shepherd these days! Or, some would say, paternalistic - I don’t need someone to watch over me, or take care of me, or love me! It’s kind of insulting, actually; to think that I do. We’ve got technology. We’ve got AI now. I can love me better than you can anyway, a popular song proudly proclaims these days. Don’t put me in your box . . . or your pasture. I’m free. It’s my life and I’ll do what I want. That’s from a song from when I was growing up! So if the Church wants to be relevant, maybe Good Shepherd Sunday is one of those things that has to go. Thank you, but you’re not really needed anymore. Time to put the Good Shepherd out to pasture.

But do sheep make good shepherds? Or are we being duped? Because that happens a lot these days, doesn’t it? That’s why people are afraid to open emails, afraid to answer the phone, afraid to open the front door. Because who is that email really from? Who is calling me? Who is that person at my door? Is that voice on the phone a deep fake? That person at the door a scammer? That email a virus-carrying, malware-infested, worm-delivering trojan horse? So now we keep our doors bolted, we have caller ID, we subscribe to anti-virus software, and it’s still not enough. So, okay, maybe some shepherding would be okay. Maybe I could use some help. But not too much! I still want to be free! To do what I want.

So, who then? Who should be my shepherd? But just when I want one, or need one - not all the time! Maybe the government. They’ll protect, they’ll provide, they’ll help me when I need it and let me be when I don’t, right? But is the government a good shepherd? What if the people in the government aren’t good? Oh, but that would never happen, would it? They would never take things too far, or get selfish, or abuse their power. I mean, that could happen, I guess. That used to happen. Tyrants, dictators, empires, crusades, corruption, world wars - but that doesn’t happen anymore, right? Well, okay, maybe government’s not the answer. Not in an imperfect pasture.

And it is imperfect. That’s one thing we can all agree on! Although we would disagree about how imperfect, I think. How far gone our world is. And even what would make this world perfect. Lots of different opinions about that. So, who do you listen to? How do you decide? Because sometimes, you know, people who say they will help you are really only helping themselves. People who seem to care about you really only care above themselves. We call them predators. And the thing about predators is that they never look like predators. If they did, you’d know what they were up to and stay away from them! Duh! So predators have to disguise themselves. We used to say they were a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But we don’t need a Good Shepherd, right? So . . . so today we called them identity thieves. They take someone else’s identity to misrepresent who they are, to make themselves look like someone else, to make themselves look good, and helpful, and honest, and caring, when they’re not. 

But how do you know? Obviously that’s a problem because many keep falling for them. And it’s not a new problem. Because they very first identity thief was satan himself. In the Garden. With Adam and Eve. And you know who he pretended to be? A Good Shepherd. He promised our first parents he’d take care of them, give them not only what they needed but what they wanted, to help them, but not too much! So they’d be free! And the world went to hell in an apple basket. And hell filled the world with predators. Not to feed you; to feed on you.

So who can you trust? Or maybe that’s not even the question anymore, but now, who can you tolerate? Who can we allow in our pasture? How do we know they’re not predators? Well, I’m not, right? So you have to think like me, you have to be like me, you have to accept me as a sheep, or I’m going to label you, call you, a predator. Then you’re going to be forced out. So there’s a lot of pressure in the pasture, to go along, even if it’s not good. Because the alternative . . . 

In such a pasture, virtue, vice, right, wrong, aren’t even categories anymore. Only in or out. And you don’t want to be out, do you? So the latest vice, or perversion, or alternative lifestyle that comes along, you must tolerate, then accept, then encourage, then exalt. Or you’re out.

But living like that isn’t harmless, it’s infectious. It can change you. If you grow up in a pasture like that, it’s all you know. It’s how you think, it’s how you live, maybe even what you begin to desire. It’s not so bad. They’re not so bad. Bad are the people who think it is! They’re the predators! We need to be saved from them. The bigots, the phobes, the deniers, the close-minded. 

So what do you think would happen to a shepherd who came to such a pasture? To care for the ones they pushed out. To heal the ones who got gored. To carry the ones who were trampled. To bring back the ones who went astray - either on purpose or by accident. To unmask the fakes, the predators. To speak the truth of right and wrong, of virtue and vice. To save the sheep in this hellish pasture. What would happen to such a shepherd? He’d be crucified! So an ordinary shepherd wouldn’t take that chance. But a good shepherd would. Because a good shepherd isn’t there for himself or his own life, like an ordinary shepherd earning a paycheck. A good shepherd is there for the sheep. Because they need him. Because they can’t live without him. Because the danger is too great. Because the predators, the pressures, and their own desires are too much for them. They will be consumed and led astray. 

So the Good Shepherd comes and is thrown out! He lays down His life for the sheep. Which would be foolish if that’s all He did! For what good would come of that? But, of course, He did more. He didn’t stay dead. That’s what we’re celebrating this Easter season. That this Good Shepherd who came and was thrown out, came back in. He didn’t stay out, where they wanted Him - He rose from the dead to stay in the pasture - not to make the pasture perfect and do away with all that’s wrong, because then He’d have do to away with us! For when we’ve played the predator and preyed upon others. For when we’ve pressured others. For when we’ve wandered and followed our own desires and wanted to be our own shepherds. 

So instead, the Good Shepherd stays in the pasture - this sinful world filled with sinful people - to be the Shepherd we need. You can go eat weeds if you want, but here, He says, is good grass, good food, the green pastures of His Word of truth. You can go drink polluted water if you want, but here, He says, are the still waters of baptism and forgiveness that revive your soul. Even though predators and pressures surround us, and our own desires tempt us and mislead us, He is with us with His rod and His staff to protect us, to correct us, and to comfort us. His table, too, is here, in the presence of our enemies, those who hate us and accuse us for not going along with them. And the healing oil of His love is here, for when we get gored and trampled and shoved aside. 

And He’s not leaving. Even if the pasture of the world seems really big and really strong, and He and His flock seem really little and really weak, they killed Him once - He cannot die again. He’s here for His sheep. For He is the Good Shepherd. Because we need one. We need Him. 

And He is your Good Shepherd not just here, but wherever you go. Because you have to go to work, and maybe where you work is filled with weeds and polluted water, and predators, pressures, and temptations. And maybe your school is like that and maybe your neighborhood is like that. And the internet and social media are like that, and maybe your friends are like that. And it’s hard. Life in this pasture, this world, isn’t and isn’t ever going to be easy. Don’t expect it to be. If they crucified the Good Shepherd, they’re not going to like those who live in His flock. So expect to get gored and trampled and shoved aside and called names and rejected and taken advantage of. But also know you have a Good Shepherd not far off, but right here in it with you. Who knows you, who knows what you’re going through, and has put you in His flock with others who are also here for you, who love not just in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. 

And then this too: in such a pasture, such a world, when others get gored and trampled and shoved aside and called names and rejected and taken advantage of, we know what they’re going through and we know where there is help for them. And who is here for them. That they too have a Good Shepherd. Come over here. Green grass, still waters, healing, truth, safety, rest. And some will. Not all. As we heard, when Peter and the others were saying this and inviting people to the Good Shepherd and His good pasture and flock, many came, many believed, but many were also greatly annoyed and angry. That’s just how it is. 

But one thing is for sure: we surely haven’t outgrown our need for a Good Shepherd! We need one now more than ever. The predators, pressures, and temptations aren’t going to stop until everything is consumed, until there is nothing left. Our only hope, then, is in the one who was consumed but rose to life again. In the one who gives life and can protect and preserve that life. In the one who knows both us, and the predators, pressures, and temptations we face. The one who came as one of us to be with us, and who stays with us. The Good Shepherd we need.

I am the Good Shepherd, Jesus said. Come to the still waters of baptism which give peace and rest to your soul. Come to the green pastures of My Word which feed you with the truth you need. Come to the healing balm of My forgiveness when sin, death, and the devil take a bite out of you and restore your soul. And come to My table, right here, in the midst of your enemies all around, feed on My risen and living Body and Blood for the strength and assurance you need in a dangerous and frightening pasture. Come to Me who came for you. Come to Me who comes to you. And come to Me until I come again for you, and the goodness and mercy that were here for you all the days of your life, will bring you to the house of the Lord, where you shall dwell forever.

Forever, for Christ, your Good Shepherd is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Two Months”

Text: Luke 24:36-49; Acts 3:11-21; 1 John 3:1-7

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

A lot can change in two months.

First of all, exactly two months ago we were gathered here in this place. The paraments were black, our hearts were solemn, and our voices cried out in repentance. It was February 14th, and Ash Wednesday. But now the paraments are white, our hearts are filled with joy, and our voices cry out alleluia! A lot has changed in two months.

Second, last week in the Introit, we prayed: Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation (1 Peter 2:2). And for newborn infants, a lot changes in two months as they get used to life outside the womb and grow so fast. 

And third, in the readings we heard today from the books of Luke and Acts, approximately two months have gone by. 

In the reading from Luke it was Easter evening, the disciples were afraid and hiding, and their hearts were troubled and doubting. And their minds? Well, they didn’t know what to think. They knew what Jesus had told them, but they also knew what they saw with the horrible cross and the large stone that sealed shut Jesus’ tomb. And what they now saw they weren’t sure was real! For when they saw Jesus, they thought they saw a spirit, a ghost. 

But in the reading from Acts, approximately two months later, how different the disciples are! How much they have grown! From their newborn faith of Easter evening, to now boldly and confidently proclaiming - to those who just two months before had been yelling for Jesus’ crucifixion! - saying you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. The disciples are no longer afraid and hiding, and their hearts are no longer troubled and doubting. They are all grown up. A lot changed in two months.

But what changed? What caused this change in the disciples? Was it seeing the risen Jesus? Hearing Him speak, seeing Him eat, and touching His flesh and bones? Certainly that was part of it. Was it receiving the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost? That happened just before the reading we heard today in Acts. And surely that was part of it as well. But the pure spiritual milk that caused them to grow up - to grow up to be Jesus’ apostles, and to grow up to salvation - was the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. That is, the Scriptures. The Bible. The Word of God. 

For that first Easter night, Jesus didn’t just appear to His disciples and show Himself to them as risen from the dead. That was great, but not enough. For even after seeing Him, hearing Him, and touching Him, Luke tells us they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling. Or in other words, it was too good to be true. And so when weeks, months, or years went by, and when the heat of persecution was turned up high, when their brother apostles started being martyred, when they weren’t sure what new struggle, hardship, or attack tomorrow would bring, you can imagine them thinking back to this night and sadly thinking: yup, it really was too good to be true. For look at what’s happening! Victory? Nah. We just saw and believed what we wanted to see and believe. 

So after appearing to His disciples and showing Himself to them as risen from the dead, Jesus feeds them. He gives them that pure spiritual milk they need to grow up. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He showed them that what had happened was no surprise, no accident. He showed them how Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah - all the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms - had laid this all out. Hundreds and thousands of years before it happened, it had all be spoken. This was the promise. This was the plan. That the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and then, that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Jesus had fulfilled all the first, and now they would fulfill all the second. He died and rose from the dead, and now they would be the preachers, the proclaimers, for they were the eyewitnesses. And they would start in the very place it all happened, and to the very people who had crucified Him - beginning in Jerusalem. 

And just approximately two months later, there they were, the disciples now apostles, in Jerusalem, at the Temple, healing a man who had been lame from birth, and proclaiming Jesus. Oh, how much had changed in two months!

And now it is us. But how much has, how much can change for you in a mere sixty days? For the verse I mentioned before, about being like newborn infants . . . for newborn infants, sixty days is a long time! When you’re only sixty days old, sixty days is a doubling, a 100% increase in your life! So of course a lot will change. But when you’re, say, sixty years old, or 21,915 days old, another 60 days is only a one-fifth of one percent increase in your life. And surely, the other 99.997% of your life defines you and has shaped you a lot more. So two months? Not that big a deal. Right?

Except it was for the disciples. Maybe they weren’t sixty years old, but they weren’t sixty days either. But no matter how old you are, how would not just sixty days, but sixty days filled with the Word of God change you? Sixty days filled with Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah, and more. Sixty days filled with what God had promised, what God had done, and what God had fulfilled for you. Sixty days not watching TikTok, not scrolling through Instagram or SnapChat, not reading X or Facebook posts, not conversing on Discord, or binge watching that show. Sixty days of not filling your minds with the thoughts and opinions of the world, but having your mind opened and filled with the Word of God. Do you think those sixty days could, would, change a lot? 

What if we were like newborn infants, longing for that pure spiritual milk? Longing for the Word of God? And so not just growing up, but growing up to salvation?

Well that is, in fact, how we should think of ourselves. That’s how the apostle John put it today, telling us: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. Now, who was John talking to? How old were the people He was writing to? No doubt of all ages. Some young, some old. But all children. Children of God. And if the age gap between a sixty day old infant and a sixty year old adult is great, how great is the age gap between us, however old you are, and the God of eternity? So newborn infants? That really is who we are to our heavenly Father. And what we need to be fed is the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word.

And fed with the Word of God, we are who we are, and we grow up to salvation. The Word of God makes all the difference. It is by water and the Word that we are born from above as children of God. It is by the Word of God that we are fed the Body and Blood of Jesus in bread and wine. It is by the Word of God that our sins are forgiven, our hearts cleansed, and our consciences put at ease. It is the Word of God that has brought all of us here today and the Word of God that teaches us and trains us in righteousness. It is the Word of God that reveals to us what we could not otherwise know - that we have a loving heavenly Father, a Son who laid down His life for us and took it up again, and the Spirit given to us and giving us life. This pure spiritual milk, this Word of God, calls us, makes us, keeps us, and sustains us as children of God. 

And that is who you are, John says. Not who you may be or should be, but are. That’s a statement of fact. Now, you may not look like it or act like it or be very good at it, that may all be true! And if being a child of God were up to you, maybe that would disqualify you. But if God begets His children through water and the Word (and He does!), and if God feeds His children with the very Body and Blood of His Son in this bread and wine (and He does!), and if God forgives His children with His Absolution (which He does!), and if God gives you His Spirit (which He does!), then who you are is up to Him. You are who He says you are, what His Word says you are. His living, active, and powerful Word, which does what it says, from the Word spoken in the first days of creation to the Word spoken here at Font, Pulpit, and Altar. Children don’t decide to be born, they are born. Of a father and a mother. And so have you been born, both physically and spiritually. 

The only way that ends is if you cut yourself off from the source of your life - cut yourself off from the pure spiritual milk of the Word of God. But with the Word of God there is life, there is growth, there is peace and hope and righteousness. And you are like that newborn infant, growing and maturing unto salvation. Growing and maturing, but never ceasing to be children. Children of your heavenly Father.

And so no matter how old you are, how much life is behind you or how much life is ahead of you, as children, a lot can change in sixty days. In fact, with the Word of God, a lot can change in an instant! The instant the baptismal water is poured on you. The instant the Body and Blood of Jesus are fed to you. The instant the Absolution is pronounced to you. For the Lord doesn’t need sixty days - six hours on the cross and three days in the tomb was enough! Enough to change everything for you.

So in a world where we are being told to “grow up!” and to “act your age!”, and where children are growing up faster than ever, maybe it’s better not to! Maybe it’s better to stay children. Children of God. Children looking to our Father for all we need. Or even more, to be like those newborn infants, longing for pure spiritual milk. Safe and secure in the arms of God. Growing but never grown. Maturing but never independent. Growing but always children. Until He appears, and, John says, we see Him as He is. As He appeared to His disciples that first Easter evening, and as He will appear to us on the final Easter, when not He but we rise from the grave, to that life that has no end. 

So on this sixtieth day after Ash Wednesday, a lot has changed! Our mourning has turned into dancing and our sackcloth and ashes into gladness and joy. Because Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.