[MN] Easter 3 - 2007 Jubilate Sunday

Tue May 1 22:31:56 UTC 2007

>
> The Lutheran Logomaniac
>
>
> Pastor Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
> Pastor, Messiah Lutheran Church, Kenosha, Wisconsin
> Easter 3 - 2007 Jubilate Sunday
>
> Posted At: May 01st, 2007 at 2:38pm by Rev. Todd Peperkorn
> Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
> Messiah Lutheran Church
> Kenosha, Wisconsin
> Easter 3 – Jubilate (April 29, 2007, rev. from 2005)
> John 16:16-22
> [For an audio MP3 of this sermon, please CLICK HERE]
>
> TITLE: “A Little While”
>
>
> Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus  
> Christ.  Amen.  Our text is from the Gospel lesson.  We focus on  
> Jesus’ words, A Little While.
>
> Jesus Christ is always full of surprises, always full of reversals  
> and apparent contradictions.  He says things that don’t make sense,  
> at least not to our dull ears and misted eyes.  So when we come to  
> a text like today, it’s somewhat like a “here we go again.  Jesus  
> is talking about suffering, and I still don’t get it.”  The mind  
> turns off, faith shrugs, and we move on to other things.
>
> Yet when Jesus talks about life on this side of the resurrection,  
> there are always two halves: suffering and healing, pain and  
> healing, sorrow and rejoicing.  That is how God talks, and it is  
> how we are to understand our lives here on earth.  St. Paul writes  
> about it this way:
>
> Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace  
> with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also  
> obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we  
> rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in  
> our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and  
> endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope  
> does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into  
> our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  
> (Romans 5:1-5)
> Yet so often we are more like the people of Israel.  In Exodus  
> fifteen we read that as the children of Israel were led by the  
> Lord, they wandered for three days and found no water.  But when  
> they finally came to Mara, the water they found was so bitter they  
> couldn’t drink it.  Sometimes we have to drink bitter water in the  
> wilderness of this world.  Sometimes the cup that the Lord gives us  
> is the cup of cross and tribulation (Ps. 75:9), just as our Lord  
> drank gall and vinegar from the cross (Matthew 27:48).
>
> We all face crosses and trials of various kinds here in this life.   
> They may be physical trials, they may be emotional or personal,  
> they may have to do with family or work.  Or the trials you face  
> may be of another sort entirely, that no one else even knows  
> about!  The trials of this life can be very painful and grueling,  
> just as that bitter water was so hard to swallow for the children  
> of Israel so many years ago.
>
> But God showed Moses a tree which he was to set down into that  
> bitter water in order to make it sweet.  God does the same for  
> you.  He sets before you the Tree of Life, that is, Jesus Christ in  
> His Word (Rev. 22:2).  As one pastor put it many years ago, “When  
> we sink the Tree into the bitter waters of cross and tribulation,  
> when we ponder Christ’s cross and suffering, also when we seize and  
> take to heart the comfort of His Word, even through that our cross  
> becomes light and sweet” (Johann Gerhard).  This is what Jesus is  
> talking about when he says, Come to me, all you who are worn out  
> and overburdened; I will refresh and renew you.  Take my yoke upon  
> yourselves-for My yoke is gentle and My burden is light (Mat.  
> 11:28-30).
>
> Our text this morning about the little while of Jesus going and  
> coming teaches us four things about the doctrine of the theology of  
> the cross.  First, it teaches us that all true Christians will be  
> subjected to the cross in this life; second, that our reason cannot  
> understand the mystery of the cross; third, it shows why our Lord  
> places us under the cross; and finally, what kind of comfort the  
> Christian may receive by the power of His Word.
>
> First of all, the Scriptures repeatedly teach that the Christian  
> will be under the cross their entire life.  Jesus says ! in Matthew  
> 16:24: If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself and take  
> his cross upon himself and follow me.  And Saint Paul says that We  
> must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts  
> 14:22).  And St. Paul says again in 2 Timothy 3:6, For those who  
> want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus have to suffer  
> persecutions.  And we hear in Hebrews 12:6, For whomever the Lord  
> loves He chastises.  And Jesus repeatedly says in reference to His  
> own suffering that this must happen or it is necessary that the Son  
> of Man suffer and the like.
>
> Perhaps the way to think of it is like this.  Our Lord wants to  
> make you into living stones that build up the body of Christ.  You  
> are His workmanship, His work of art.  Now stones, in order to be  
> used in building, must be chiseled and polished and worked until  
> they are just right.  God is, in effect, chiseling you out and  
> polishing you for the kingdom of God.  He is working away at your  
> unbelief and sin, removing the impediments to faith and building  
> you up into His own image, the image of His only begotten Son.
>
> But this is truly a mystery if there ever was one.  This is the  
> second point of our text.  The disciples didn’t understand, and  
> neither do we.  When we are faced with trials and tribulations in  
> this life, our natural response is much more one of complaining and  
> murmuring against God, than it is rejoicing that He has made us  
> worthy to be fashioned into His likeness.  It is a mystery that  
> only God can reveal to us by His Word.
>
> So why is it that God must lay crosses and tribulations upon us?   
> It works this way: Our rebirth comes through faith, and faith comes  
> from the Word of God, but the Word of God is seldom planted apart  
> from the cross and tribulation.  When things a! re going perfectly  
> in your life, when you are happy and making money, when everything  
> goes right in your life, who needs God?  So in order to cultivate  
> the ground of your heart, God sends tribulations and trials, so  
> that you will hear His Word and trust in Him all of your life.
>
> Now perhaps at first glance this seems mean.  I suppose that to a  
> young child, when a parent disciplines them, it does appear just  
> mean.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.  Our heavenly  
> Father chastens us and allows trials and tribulations precisely  
> because He loves us.  When cross and trial grieve you, rejoice and  
> be glad!  For this is a sign that God has not abandoned you, but  
> rather that He loves you so much that He wishes to fashion you into  
> something even greater.
>
> Jesus’ cross and empty tomb give you a lens for seeing the world  
> and your own life.  The devil, the world and your own sinful nature  
> all want you to look at the trials and sufferings of your life, and  
> believe that by them God is proving He has abandoned you.  But  
> Jesus in our Gospel today gives you hope.  A little while, he  
> says.  That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?  A little while.  That’s  
> how long the suffering and trials of this life will last.
>
> Now while you and I are stuck in the middle of things here on this  
> earth, a little while may seem like a terribly long time.  We may  
> cry out with the Psalmist, How long, O Lord, how long?  Our little  
> while may seem more like the Israelites four hundred years of  
> slavery in Egypt, or their seventy years exiled in Babylon.  But  
> just like the Israelites as they prayed in Psalm one hundred twenty  
> six:
>
> 1 When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like  
> those who dream.
> 2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing.
> Then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things  
> for them."
> 3The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad. (Psalm  
> 126:1-3)
>
> Christ our Lord may leave for a little while, as He says in this  
> text, but He returns again and again by Word and Sacrament to give  
> you the strength you need to go on with life.  Trust that Christ  
> will take care of you.  He who died on the cross and rose again for  
> your salvation will see you through.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.   
> Amen.
> The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts  
> and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.
>
> Some of the ideas behind this sermon are received with thanks from  
> Johann Gerhard’s Church Postils.
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn, Pastor
Messiah Lutheran Church
2026 22nd Ave., Kenosha, WI 53140
(262) 551-8182 Church
(262) 551-9081 Parsonage
Pastor at messiahkenosha.org
PARISH: http://messiahkenosha.org/
ACADEMY: http://www.christlutheranacademy.com/
HIGHER THINGS: http://www.higherthings.org/
http://blog.higherthings.org/peperkorn/

"The sect cannot wait; it must have everything at once, for it has no
future. The church can wait, for it does have a future. We Lutherans  
should
think of that" (The Lonely Way, Volume II, 328).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


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