Christ's Promising Word

Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 9, 2010
Unworldly Peace
John 14:23-29

A Babe Totally at Peace

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

Speaking of Mother’s Day, one of my favorite sights is a newborn baby (say, less than four months old) rolled up in a little ball and sleeping—totally contented and at peace. Usually you see them like a big lump of warm, pliant gingerbread dough just molded here on top of a mother’s shoulder… smelling like warm yeast bread.

I bet there are many days when you wish that you could sleep like that! Safe, calm and secure. Oblivious to the world around you. Without a single care or worry. At peace. Totally at peace.

Last week I popped in on a man in the hospital at the very moment when he was waking from a fitful sleep. He had a nightmare. A terrible nightmare. Probably due a fever and his pain medications. And he was shaken to the bone. We talked and prayed an hour and he was still trembling when I left. And that was only a dream…and I wondered how many actually live the nightmare.

We Live in a Nightmare

Each week our kids face dangers that were rarely heard of thirty or forty years ago. When I went to high school, the biggest problems were chewing gum, talking in class and the length of skirts above the knees. Once in a great while some kid would sneak at smoke in the bathroom. That was it.

But, now…over 60% of high school youth in Lorain County have personally witnessed a violent act such as a beating, knifing or a shooting. And some refuse to go into certain bathrooms between classes for fear of what will happen there. No wonder moms are so nervous and protective.

And we all live with the threat of global terror as a certain car bomb on Times Square reminded us yet again this past week. Once there was a day when we thought the vast oceans on our two borders would protect us from the problems overseas. But that delusion got shattered the day two Twin Towers came tumbling down.

A Peace the World Cannot Give

Towards the end of Evening Prayer (that powerful and meaningful service of prayer we use during Lent), there is an ancient petition of the church that we use again and again and again. It is one of my most favorite prayers. It goes like this:

“O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works: give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give.”

Who are we kidding? The world will never give us peace. Back in the days of Jesus, the Roman government bragged about its “Pax Romana,” the Roman Peace. Twice the Emperor Augustus closed the “Gates of Janus” to mark world peace. For two years out of 200 there were no wars anywhere in the empire.

And what did that really mean, except that the Romans had so beaten people into submission that they had no power to resist. Is that peace? Beating people into submission?

“Peace I Leave You”

No, the world can never give us peace. It is at war with God. But Jesus can. Shortly before his ascension into heaven, Jesus turned to his disciples and said: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

This is not the kind of peace the world gives: A drug induced stupor, denial of any problems, a brief cessation of hostilities, a deceptive calm before the storm.

The peace that Jesus gives is the very peace that Jesus won upon a cross. A true reconciliation with God the Father. That results in the giving of his Spirit. Who keeps us calm and hopeful no matter how difficult the adversities come.

On the cross, Jesus broke down that wall that separated us from God, the wall of sin. The vertical. It was not the world’s victory through power and intimidation, but it was God’s victory through self-sacrificial love and invitation. The invitation to believe in the promises fulfilled through Christ’s death and resurrection.

Enemies Made Friends

And in the process he also broke down horizontal walls. The walls that separate us from each other.

In Luke’s telling of the death of Jesus there is a little detail that always makes me chuckle with delight. It hit me right between the eyes again as we read the Luke’s Passion account once again this year on Palm Sunday. It’s a detail that is very easy to miss unless you know exactly where to look. Did it catch your eye like it caught mine?

Only Luke tells us that when Pilate hears that Jesus is a Galilean he (that is, Pilate) sends Jesus off to Herod Antipas (the Jewish ruler of Galilee) for an informal hearing. Herod mocks Jesus and sends him back. And then Luke adds this detail: “That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; because before this they had been enemies.”

And isn’t that an interesting touch? Herod and Pilate hated each other. They were two nations fighting each other in the arena of international politics. Romans vs. Jews. Neither one believed in Jesus. Both mocked him. Both thought they had the power over him—the power of life and death. And yet, these two bitter rivals became friends because of Jesus on the very day of his crucifixion.

Christ’s Power to Bring Peace

Do you get the message? This is the power that Jesus has. The power to bring peace into a fractured world. The power to bring divided people together. A power he passes on to us through his own Spirit. Peace is not something we achieve. Not us. Not in our own lifetime. Peace is a gift that only Christ can bring. And he does, through the gift of his own Spirit.

“Peace,” Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” His parting word to us is “Peace.”

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster

Fifth Sunday in Easter
May 5, 2010
A New Commandment
John 13:31-35

Love, Sex & Fire

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

One of the saddest things I see as a pastor is to see love misused and abused.

I hate it when I see article after article in the paper about how sexual love is abused by a priest or a minister or a pastor with either a child or another member of the congregation. Or when I read of celebrity after celebrity cheating on their spouse.

In confirmation class, we tell the kids that sex is like fire.

In the right places, within the right boundaries, in the right context…it is wonderful, thrilling, uplifting, binding. But in the wrong context it can be terribly destructive

A fire in my fireplace or in my barbecue grill…that is a wonderful thing. But fire in the middle of my living room…that is a nightmare and disaster.

The proper place for sex is in marriage. A permanent monogamous commitment to one person for the rest of your life.

And so, we tell the kids, if you are not married to that person, then there is a very simple rule of thumb: “Keep your pants on!”

Many people in the church and many national celebrities would be much, much, much better off if they had followed that simple rule of thumb. “Keep your pants on and zipped up.”

An Awesome, Yet Deadly Force

Back when the ELCA was engaged in its sexuality studies one person said something that made a lot of sense to me. That person said, “Sex is one of the most powerful forces in the universe.” And that explains a lot now does it? Why some people take such great risks and do such stupid things.

And then someone else said something else that made even more sense to me: “Sex is not the most powerful force in the universe. ‘Being right’ is. And if you doubt that for a moment, well, then just get married.”

And isn’t that a penetrating thought? Even greater than our sex drive is our need to be right in any argument.

What is basic message in any argument? “What I did or what I think is right. And what you did or what you think is wrong.”

It is that simple isn’t it? People are out to “justify” their thoughts and actions. “Self-justification” we call it in the church.

But let me tell you. Nothing is more deadly to a relationship than “righteous indignation.”

And isn’t that a pretty heavy burden? To always have to justify yourself? And to always be right?

And do you ever really want to stand before God, the greatest judge of them all, and claim that your way is right and everyone else is wrong? How do you think that will play in God’s court of law? Maybe as well as Goldman Sachs before the senate right now.

Marriage is Like a Death & Resurrection

I once told a couple on their wedding day that a marriage is like a death and resurrection. Some things were going to have to die in their married life together, especially if they were going to love each other as Christ loved them:

Some of their own choices and preferences for one thing. Certain hopes and dreams and freedoms. Debating points die. Rights die. Pride dies. Fairness dies. Self-pity dies. The right to pout and whine. Valid, righteous indignation. It all dies.

And in its place something new rises and is born. A true loving relationship that holds tight together despite the turmoil and the storms. And that does not seek to justify itself but rather allows us to say, “Honey, am sorry. I was wrong. Can we make a new start and a new beginning?” And that we daily need to live in the love and grace that Jesus has given us. His love is what gives us life.

Two years later the groom came into my office a broken and a desperate man. And he said to me, “I thought you were nuts when you said all that. I thought that in my marriage I could be my own person and do whatever pleases me. And now I’ve made a mess of things. I was so wrong. Can you help me put my marriage back together again?”

Well, Try Something New

Well, how about this, my friend. Get some professional counseling and try the cross. Try con¬fession and forgiveness. Love one another as Christ has loved you.

“I give you a new commandment,” Jesus said, “that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” In fact, he says, “I have loved you in order that you also may love one another.”

There is nothing new about the command to love. It has been around a long, long time ever since the days of Moses.

What is “new” is Jesus.

What is “new” is his death and resurrection.

What is “new” is that we don’t ever need to justify ourselves in order to be right with God, because Jesus has already spoken God’s verdict on the cross: “Father, forgiven them.” To which, God said an Easter “Yes! Yes! Yes! Amen!”

What is “new” is that this is not an “old commandment” that judges you and accuses you if you don’t keep it. Rather it is a “new commandment” that enables you and empowers you to love as Christ loved you because it crucifies you with Christ himself.

Jesus does not just raise the bar and increase the standard, he alters the situation.

Jesus doesn’t just give us a model and a pattern. He gives us the power.

Jesus doesn’t just point us to a new direction and to a new and better GPS. But he also pours out the gas that propels us forward.  Jesus hands over his Spirit.

With Easter Comes Pentecost & an Empowered People

With Easter comes a Pentecost. An empowered people. An empowered church.

The Holy Spirit is Christ’s own fire (the fire of his love) that ignites the flames of our own earthly loves that give witness to a loving Lord.

It is a love that is passed on even to one’s enemies and to the poorest of the poor. And certainly to the members of our own household and this community of faith.

Fire in the wrong place is a disaster and a nightmare. But in the right place it gives a fantastic witness to the world.

Sex is not the most powerful force in the universe. Nor is self-justification, for that matter. The love that Jesus has for us is.

For the greatest of these is love.

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster

Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 25, 2010
Voice Recognition
John 21:19-31

This Sounds Phishy

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

Evelyn and I had quite the experience two months ago. Towards the beginning of Lent we received an email in the church office.

It was from what claimed to be the Toledo Community Foundation. It said that an anonymous donor wanted to give Emmanuel some money and so it asked that we send in all our financial information from the previous year.

And Evelyn and I both said, “Who in the world from Toledo would be interested in giving Emmanuel some money? We know what this is. This is one of those scams called “phishing.”

And so, we put it in the “Junk Mail” folder and dismissed it as a scam.

But about a week later someone called from the Toledo Community Foundation saying they had sent us an email and wouldn’t we please respond. Some anonymous donor wanted to give us money.

And I said, “This is strange. Why would somebody phishing call us on the phone. Maybe we should check this one out.”

100% Legitimate

And so, I called Bob Lessing, and he suggested that I call Brian Fredericks, the president of Lorain County’s  Community Foundation, whom both Bob and I know personally.

And Brian said to me, “I know some people over in Toledo. Do you want me to check it out?” And I said, “Yes, indeed, would you please.”

And about 20 minutes later Brian called back to say that this was 100% legitimate.

And so I called Steph Thompson, and she and I hustled to get the info in.

And wouldn’t you know it? On Good Friday, I received a letter from the Toledo Community Foundation saying the grant had been approved. And inside it was a check for $10,000 to be used for Phase II of our organ renovation.

And if you are the anonymous donor, we thank you. We really do. Thank you for your gift.

But what a fortunate thing that the Toledo Community Foundation was persistent and called back a second time. We almost looked a gift horse in the mouth and walked away. And what a tragedy that would have been.

Someone wanted to give us a gift. And we were not ready to received it…because…we did not believe it. We didn’t recognize the voice. The name. Or ever expect that someone would do such a thing.

The Gospel is Money in the Bank

And there you have a parable of the very the Gospel works.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gift, the greatest gift in the world. That gift is already there. Jesus already died and rose again.

And yet, what good does that gift do if we don’t believe it and receive it? Through Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, God pours out the riches of his grace—the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. “Phase II,” you might call it, of our own personal restoration.

It is money in the bank. These gifts are already there. Waiting for us. On deposit. Held in trust. Just aching to be given.

And through the Gospel witness, God is sending us email after email saying these gifts are yours. They have your name on it. God did this all for you. Please respond. And claim them as your own so that God can get these gifts into your hands.

But what good are they if we simply dismiss this all as junk mail?

Martin Luther once said that Jesus could have died for us a 1,000 times and not one of them would do us any good today if we did not believe it.

A Good Shepherd: What Kind of Claim is This?

There were some Judeans back in the days of Jesus who looked a gift horse in the mouth.

Jesus told them that he was the Good Shepherd, the way, the truth and the life. He told them that he came with God’s gifts in hand. It was money in the bank just waiting for them. It had their name on it.

But, they could not believe it, for they did not recognize his voice. It wasn’t what they were expecting. What good could come out of Nazareth? It was just like I was thinking about Toledo. What good could come out of Toledo?

“I am the Good Shepherd,” that’s what Jesus said. But what kind of claim is that?

That is godly, kingly, messiah language from the Hebrew scriptures—Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34. But Jesus didn’t look like a king or a messiah. Certainly not like the kind they had in Judas Maccabeus, the very man they celebrated during the festival of the Dedication, or Hanukah as we more commonly call it.

Judas was the great warrior who 190 years earlier kicked out a foreign overlord. That is the kind of Messiah they wanted. A mighty one. A militant one. A political one.

But Jesus! Jesus was starting to sound a lot more like the very schnook, the Syrian ruler whom Judas overthrew, Antiochus Epiphanes, who claimed to be a god himself and got some Jews to follow him.

What a piece of cake he was! In his pictures he is nude like a god or holding a lion skin like the god-man Hercules. His coins say, “Image of God. Bearer of victory.”

Wasn’t Jesus doing the same when he said that he and the Father were one? Wasn’t Jesus making a “god” of himself? And wasn’t that another scam and blasphemy?

No wonder in the very next sentence after this scene the Judeans try to stone him.

A God Who Dies for Us

But Jesus is not a human making himself “god,” the way we do. But rather, he is God in human flesh and bones already made human. Jesus is the true “Image of God” and the “Bearer of Victory.”

And quite fortunately, he does not give up on any one of us. But rather he keeps calling and calling and calling and calling until we become a flock that hears his voice and recognizes him in trusting faith and follows.

He doesn’t want to lose one. No, not one! That’s what makes him the Good Shepherd! He wants you!

We all have our doubts about Jesus. Our questions and suspicions. He doesn’t always act the way we think he should. And all too often he keeps us in suspense and waiting.

And we just want to shake him sometimes and say to him, “If you are the Messiah, tell me plainly. Give me some clear signs. Fix whatever current mess I am in. Usually a mess of our own making.”

But the only sign we have is the sign that has been given. A death and a resurrection. A God who dies for us and rises again. Not to lord it over us but to lift us up. And to show how serious he is about the gift he gives. And what it is he gives to accomplish our salvation.

No Scam

This is no trick. No con. No scam. It is the real thing.

A gift from God—that has your name on it!—a gift that’s even better than $10,000 in the bank. And all that is needed now is for you to recognize his voice and take him at his word. To believe it and claim it as your own.

Don’t do what I did with that email from Toledo. For great gifts do indeed come in unexpected ways from unexpected places.

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster

Third Sunday of  Easter
April 17, 2010
It is the Lord!
John 21:19-31

Do You See Jesus?

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

Today we have a simple sermon with a simple Gospel message. And that sermon is simply this: Jesus is alive. He is very much alive…and standing by your side.

Jesus is here with you here today. Do you see him? Do you see Jesus? And do you recognize him when you see him?

What I am saying is that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and that He lives and rules, and He appears to us in sickness and in health, at work and play, and in the middle of life’s routine, and that he puts our minds at peace with his closeness and his help. Jesus is alive. And so now EVERY day is an Easter day.

But do you see him?  Do you see Jesus? And do you recognize him when you see him?  Do you realize “It is the Lord?”

Gone fishing

This question comes to us in another one of those fishing stories from the bible. Jesus had already appeared to his disciples twice, and still, Good Friday’s grief had not yet gone away. The news of the resurrection was just too much for them. Too wonderful, too impossible to be true.

“I’m going fishing,” Peter said. “We will join you,” six more added.

So there they were (Peter, James and John, and four others) back in the familiar waters of their youth, pre-Jesus and pre-Good Friday.

Now that their lives were shattered and confused, what was left except to go back to the Sea of Galilee and try to put things back in place again? Maybe they could get their heads in order. Fishing is a good way to clear one’s head.

Without Jesus We Can Do Nothing

But like a lot of fishing parties that I know, this one wasn’t too successful. Without Jesus, they can do nothing. All night long they fished and their nets kept coming up empty.

But as dawn began to break, they saw a stranger on the shore who called out through the morning fog, “How’s fishing?  Caught anything this morning?”

And when they answered “No,” he told them to throw out their nets again and this time on the right side of the boat, and when they did, they couldn’t pull them in. The nets were full of fish. Jesus provides for them with an unlimited supply.

An Unexpected Appearance of the Lord

Hadn’t something like this happened once before when Jesus first called them as his disciples? Well, it does not matter. The point is that they saw the Lord, and it was John, who said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” John recognized his voice and his provision.

And the other point is this, that Jesus gladdens with his presence and his help, he puts our minds at peace, usually when we least expect his presence and his help—which are always there even when we fail to recognize him.

The disciples were not in church when Christ appeared. They were not dressed up in fancy suits and ties, their hair in place, their shoes neatly cleaned and polished.

It did not happen the way we usually want it: for Jesus to appear only the times that we are ready for him. We prefer that Jesus email ahead for an appointment so that our house is tidy and the kids on their best behavior.

But the Risen Jesus is not limited to Sundays only. He is a constant companion in our lives, each and every day. Do you see him? Do you see Jesus? Do you recognize him when you see him?

Christ is a Constant Companion in our Everyday Lives

Jesus lives in every home—including yours—24/7. He is with us on the job, at school and in retirement.

And there are many things we thought just happened or we credited to luck or our good fortune that were, in fact, arranged with care by those same loving hands that once were pierced with nails for us.

Jesus is near at hand in times of sorrow, want, and need. He is the Savior still who “saves the day” each day for us to put our hearts at rest.

We Feast on Christ’s Provision

And so they came to shore, those seven in the Galilean ship, for breakfast with the Lord: to once again feast on his provision through no effort of their own.

Peter couldn’t wait, of course, but when he heard, “It is the Lord,” he jumped headlong from the boat.

And on the shore the Savior waited for them with fish already fried and the bread. And none of the disciples dare to ask Him, for they knew it was the Lord.

He took the bread and gave it to them, and they ate—now that should sound familiar!

This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after he was risen from the dead. And they saw him. And they recognized him. And they knew, they just knew “It is the Lord.”

Christ Never…Never…Never Stops Feeding Us

Do you see Him? Do you see Jesus? Do you recognize Him? Do you know “It is the Lord” as He appears among life’s burdens. And picks up your load. And provides for you in unexpected ways. And as he blesses your joys and days of celebration?

Jesus is alive. And Jesus is doing good for you. And Jesus is always near at hand to put your mind at peace and to provide in time of need.

And it is a great reminder when we gather with Jesus at this table—this breakfast table—week after week and he continues to reveal his presence in our lives through bread and wine.

Jesus is not a Lord long dead in Joseph’s tomb. Jesus is a risen, living Lord who never stops…never stops…never stops…never stops feeding us with his grace and love.

Those Who Are Fed are Sent

And those who are fed are “sent.” We are “sent out” to feed others. The charge to Peter is our charge.

Three times it is said. Three times. Once for each denial. “Simon son of John, do you love me more than fishin’ even with a record haul? Be honest now. Be honest.” “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Take care of the flock.”

The presence of Jesus as the living Lord calls us all to mission.  We who see Jesus active in our lives can do no other than speak the things that we have heard and seen

Our time with Jesus is not designed for our own personal comfort and pleasure, but as the very power that propels the Gospel witness on the most gigantic fishing expedition ever undertaken.

So, let’s hear it then. Tell others! Have you seen Him?

Do you see Jesus present and active in your life? Do you recognize Him when you see him? If so, do what John did and let it be known: “It is the Lord!”

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

© Pastor Paul Jaster

Second Sunday of Easter
April 11, 2010
Thomas, 0ur Twin
John 20:19-31

Have You a Twin?

Have you ever met a person who could be your twin? A person of the same age and height and girth. The same contours to their face, the same mannerisms, the same patterns of expression? What is that experience like?

I sometime wonder what it is like for people who are twins to look across at their “identical” and see the spitting image of themselves. Is it comforting to know that there is another person out there who looks and acts like you? Or, is it disturbing?

I can hardly stand to see myself on a mini-cam in a video. What would I ever do if a person jumped off the screen and came to life and stared at me eyeball to eyeball—my Twin!

Met Thomas, the Twin

Each year on the Second Sunday of the Easter season, we meet a man named Thomas, who was also called “the Twin.”

Whose twin? Well, the bible never says. The bible never says who bore the same face and appearance of our Lord’s disciple, Thomas. His twin is never named in the record of the past.

Which very well could be intentional. For in one very significant respect Thomas is our “Twin,” in that he was not there either the day the Risen Lord first appeared to his disciples.

From that first small band of twelve disciples, there is one who shares with us the same handicap, the same misfortune: the disadvantage of not having our fears and doubts instantly removed by a visual sighting and a tangible experience with the crucified Jesus risen and alive.

How Easy it Was for Those First Disciples

How easy it was for those who had locked themselves behind closed doors on Easter day…how easy it was for them to believe!

They could see the lips of Jesus move when his tender words of peace swept away their troubled fears and stirred within their hearts a solid joy.

The marks on his hands and in his side where plainly evident. They could clearly see this was not smoke and mirrors or computer generated graphics. They could first see…and then they could believe.

Death’s Question Mark

Not so for second-generation Christians living outside the land of Palestine around the end of the first century when the book of John was written.

They could not see or touch the risen Lord. And what was worse, by the time this gospel book went to press around the year 90 AD, the last of the twelve, the very last, John, had died.

Gone was their living link to the living Lord. Gone was any chance to look John in the eyes, while he was telling his amazing story, and search them for the truth.

All that was left were his words written in book. The ones we read today. The death of the last eye-witness had put its question mark over all his words of life.

And doesn’t death always do that? Put a question mark over all of life and make us wonder if it is so? It did for the disciples & early Christians. And it does for us today.

Thomas Blew It

A lot of dying has happened since the day that Jesus rose. And should we have our doubts about the truth of the resurrection and of a dead and buried Son of God coming back to life again, it may be good to know that we have many “twins” who share our company, including the man they called “the Twin.”

O yes, Thomas! Here Thomas had the tremendous opportunity to be the very first person in all of human history to come to faith solely on the basis of the Gospel word proclaimed by his ten brothers.

Here Thomas had the chance to come to faith the way everyone must come to faith since the day that Christ ascended: by hearing, not by seeing.

And he blew it! “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.”

And much to our surprise, the Lord obliged him. Jesus appeared to Thomas.

Just as Jesus had broken free from the prison hole of Death and just as Jesus had broken through the locked doors of the disciples’ room, so also Jesus broke through the locked doors of his disciple’s mind and heart so that Thomas could throw away his question mark and replace it with an exclamation point, “My Lord and my God!”

Blessed are Those Who Have Not Seen and Yet Believe

And what are we to say of all of this? Is Thomas more fortunate than we because he had his doubts removed by a command performance of the Risen Lord?

Is he more blessed than we because he was finally included among that privileged group of the first eye-witnesses? He is—the way we see it. We envy him.

But, he is not—the way that Jesus sees it. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Up to this point throughout the entire gospel, Jesus had a private “reality show” going on with his twelve disciples.

But, now at the very end Jesus finally turns and stares into the camera and has a word which is said to us as well: “You, people watching. You Christians at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Elyria, Ohio. I did it all for you. Blessed are you, when even though you have not seen, you still believe.”

And there we have Christ’s word on it. It is not the original eye-witnesses who are more privileged and more blessed. But rather it is you and me when we believe without the benefit of having seen.

For when Christ rose again and opened up the door to that locked room, he broke down every barrier which can separate him from his disciples of every time and place including those of us who are his disciples now—in this time and this place.

My Lord & My God!!!

Thomas by be our “Twin” both in the initial doubts he had and in the bold confession which he finally made. But that does not mean that we have to see like him before we can believe like him.

The resurrection of Jesus both written and proclaimed is more than sufficient to straighten out our question marks and turn them into exclamations—“My Lord and my God!”

We may not know everything we would like to know about the things which Jesus did which never got written down into any book. But what we have is quite enough.

For it is written, the gospel word is written, “so that you might come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster

The Day of Resurrection
April 4, 2010
No Idle Tale, Remember
Luke 24:1-12

Remember What He Told You?

It is so obvious, isn’t it, now that the angels say it.

“He is risen! He is not here. Why do you seek the living among the dead?

“Remember how he told you,… that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

Yes! Yes! Yes! That rings a bell, now doesn’t it?

Three times in each of the first three Gospels.

Three times Jesus said that it was “necessary,” yes, it was so “necessary,” for him to undergo great suffering…and be killed…and on the third day to be raised again. He “must.” He “must.”

Time and time and time again, Jesus tried to prepare his disciples for what was coming down the pike.

Yet They Were Shocked!

And yet, they were not prepared when finally it happened. They were shocked. And they were devastated. And they moped around in daze wondering how in the world they would take the shattered pieces of their lives and put them back together once again.

The women who came to the tomb on that first Easter day did not expect to find a Risen Lord. Their only thought was of the dead and who had rolled the stone away.

And the men…well, they were no where to be found. They hid in dark corners like a wounded animals licking their wounds. They did not dare to go outside at all.

And isn’t that just like us? A tragedy hits. A disaster strikes. And we forget everything that Jesus ever told us. We weep. We cry. We despair. And we forget every promise Jesus ever made.

Until the gospel word hits us right between the eyes. And we “remember” what Jesus said, that it was necessary for the Messiah to die and to be raised from the dead, so that repentance and the forgiveness of sins could be proclaimed in his name to all the nations of the world.

It was the love of God behind this “must.” This sacred “must.” Must die. Must rise.

The death of Jesus Christ was no accident. It was not a sad accidental mishap or a very bad mistake. It was God’s plan and purpose all along to save and to redeem an entire world.

They Dismissed It as an Idle Tale

Don’t you remember?

The women did. As soon as the two angels pointed them back to the words of Jesus, the light bulb went on.

And immediately they left the tomb. And they became the first witnesses to the resurrection. They rushed, they hurried to tell “the eleven” and the rest.

But…their words “seemed to them an ‘idle tale,’ and they [the male disciples] did not believe them.”

And isn’t that a bite? Here the women are at least brave enough to go to the tomb. And amazingly they encounter two angels in a dazzling white.

And they are shaken to the bone…until their memories are jarred. And they remember the words of Jesus. And the bells of Easter joy start ringing in their ears.

And then they go and do what one “must do” when we catch on the Risen Lord and catch a glimmer of his glory—THEY GO AND TELL OTHERS.

And yet, the men— the men dismiss it all as a bunch of “idle talk,” and they did not believe them.

Who Says There’s No Humor in the Bible?

Who says there is no humor in the bible? I think Saint Luke is taking a jab at our all too common gender stereotypes. And he is right. He’s got me nailed.

I don’t believe everything all the women in my house tell me, either. Do you?

A few of them have been known to stretch the truth every now and then. They twist the facts to their advantage.

And it works the other way around, too. They don’t believe everything I say, either.

We all do our share of “selective listening.” It is not just men who are so hard of hearing.

Easter Faith Does Not Come Easily

But Saint Luke has a very serious point for us, too. The resurrection of Jesus is no idle tale. It is the rock-solid Gospel truth!

The Easter did not come easily or quickly to the first disciples. This is not a made-up story: a myth designed by early Christians.

The earliest disciples were hard-headed realists who demanded something far more substantial than just an emotional outburst or the rumor of an angelic vision.

Ultimately, it would take a personal encounter with the Risen Lord. Jesus walking through the locked door of their hearts and minds.

Eating food and breaking bread before their very eyes. And opening up their minds to all the Scriptures. How it was necessary. Yes, it was so necessary for the Son of man to be handed over the sinners and crucified and on the third day rise.

He must. He must.

We cannot “prove” the resurrection of Jesus. It is not a piece of scientific data. We cannot explain how God can take a limp, dead body and make it come alive again.

It is a matter of faith, not of science. In fact, just ask your kids. Our secular colleges and universities raise more doubts and questions about all religions than they give answers.

Tough Questions to Explain Without the Resurrection

But, just because this is a matter of faith, does not mean that we have to park our brains at the door. And anyone who does deny or doubt the resurrection has some pretty tough historical questions to explain:

• Like how come women are the “first witnesses” at a time and in a culture that did not trust the testimony of women? What advantage is there in inventing a story like that?
• Or, why are the men displayed in such an embarrassing light? Our Lord’s closest friends are the very ones who desert him and betray him. What spin master makes up stuff like that when it doesn’t help their candidate?
• And why was there no early Christian worship around the tomb of Jesus, when the Jews to this very day still worship at the tombs of their prophets and their departed leaders?
• And why different resurrection accounts clearly written at different times in different places, and yet all with the same essential core, if this all come from one fictitious source?
• And why dream up a resurrection at all in the first place when there is no analogy to this in all of ancient literature. A dead corpse returning to an abiding life in living, physical flesh and blood that people saw and touched. There is no precedent for this in any literature of any people before that first Easter day. People didn’t want to return to this life—they wanted to move on to the next.
• And why did some Jews (from a religion, mind you, that fought quite  hard and shed a lot of blood to champion their “one God”), why did they so quickly and consistently identify Jesus as equal in divinity to their one God, too? That is a tough one, a very tough one, to explain without a resurrection
• And how did those terrified and cowardly disciples become such bold confessors of the faith—to the point of martyrdom? Who dies for a rumor?

None of this Makes Sense, Unless it Really Happened

None of this makes any sense. None of it. Unless it did indeed happen, really happen, just as the good news of the Gospel says.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is no “idle tale.” It is the “rock solid” Gospel truth, consistent with all of God’s gracious acts throughout all of history.

And it does indeed make sense, it does, when we remember. When we remember all that Jesus told us about how this had to be.

For isn’t this precisely the way that our good old faithful God has always worked? Changing death into life. And turning sorrow into joy. Much to our amazement and surprise!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster

Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 10, 2009
Love One Another
1 John 4:7-21

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Love to See the Love

It has been my great joy these last few weeks to meet with a whole bunch of couples in order to plan weddings and baptisms. And I love to see the love. That’s what I enjoy the most about being a pastor. I love to see the love.

It was a thrill a week ago last Saturday to go over to Sue’s home and see her daughter Sarah and Sarah’s husband, Alex, interact with their newborn son, their first child, Timothy. I love to see the love.

And it is a joy to see Brian and Nichole with Lucas. And Ralph and Jennie with Thomas. They were the stars last week. And now today it’s Lee & Valerie with their firstborn, Wyatt. These are all great loving parents. Who, in turn, had great loving parents.

And it has been a treat to meet with about a half a dozen couples who are preparing for weddings this summer and fall to see their excellent relationship skills and joy and happiness. I love to see the love.

The Pain of Righteous Indignation

But then I come across something that is disturbing. As I have couples share and reflect on their family backgrounds, I begin to see the tensions that are there. The wounds. The griefs. The sorrows.

Every family has them. The tensions between mom and dad…and the kids…and siblings. And some of them are still felt painfully and bitterly…even on a Mother’s Day.

We hate them…we hate him…we hate her…because they first wounded and hated us. And let me tell you, there is no greater destructive force in the universe than “righteous indignation.” Not only to be angry. That is painful and powerful enough. But also to be “right” in our anger. To be “justified” in it.

What do you think is tearing people apart in the Middle East? It is “righteous indignation.” People who have been hurt and wounded. (And they have.) And who now think that they are “justified” in striking back with God’s own righteous anger. And who can tell where it all started…much less when it will all end?

We can trace it all back to the very beginning when Cain killed his brother Abel out of what Cain thought was “righteous indignation.” And that can happen in any family. Endless cycles of hurt, hate and getting even. “We hate others because…because…because they first hated us.”

Jesus Breaks the Pattern

But thank God that God sent his son Jesus to establish another pattern. “We love because God first loved us.” “In this is love, not that we loved God” (for we have our issues with God too! Why God, oh why, did you allow it all to happen?) “BUT that God loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

It isn’t only that Jesus forgives us all our sins. Although that is good and wonderful enough. And many of us would be satisfied with just that. That Jesus forgives us all our sins.

But Jesus does more than just forgive us all our sins. Jesus breaks the cycle of “righteous indignation” by giving forgiveness precisely where it is NOT deserved. “While we were still sinners Christ died for us,” the Bible tells us.

And if we let it, that can change us. For no longer is it “We hate others because they first hated us.” Rather it is, “We love others because God first loved us.”

A New Commandment on the Night of His Last Supper

That’s why three terrific young women—Elizabeth Ellis, Lilly Lyons, and Ashley Olszewski—are so eager to make their first communion today. They can tell you.

On the night of his Last Supper Jesus takes the bread and wine in hand and pours out his great love for us. And Jesus says, “Take eat, this is my body given for you. Take drink, this is my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you eat and drink of it in remembrance of me.”

And then Jesus says one more thing, “A new commandment I give you. That you love one another as I have loved you.”

And doesn’t that sound exactly like what we hear from First John this morning? “We love because he first loved us.” “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brother and sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment that we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” with that same self-sacrificial love.

God’s Love Seen in Christian Mothers

And probably where we see it best—that agape (God-given, Christ-enabled, self-sacrificial love)—is in our Christian mothers. Motherly love is probably the closest thing to what Jesus commanded and envisioned here on earth.

Moms bear the hurts, endure the sassy back-talk, keep on doing their everyday loving and dishing out their daily sacrifices, even when there are not many rewards or “Thank you’s!” in it.

Moms are probably the best at embodying the kind of love that Jesus has for us and making it real, concrete and alive. And for that we thank them very, very much.

And I can see the families where that kind of love takes hold and gets passed down from generation to generation. And that brings me great joy and happiness. I love to see the love.

Do you see it? Do you feel it?

We love because God first loved us.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

Fourth Sunday of Easter
May 3, 2009
Love Acts
1 John 3:16-24

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Love is Tangible and Real

Just ask any parent here. Ask Brian & Nicole or ask Jennie & Ralph. Love is real. Love is concrete. Love acts! Love does touchable, physical things.

You can’t bring a baby into the world, put that infant on shelf and never lovingly touch that infant again. Well you could, but that child wouldn’t last very long. Can you even imagine giving birth to a baby but never holding, never hugging him or her?

Go to Google and type in three words—monkeys touch deprivation—and you will discover the ever since the early 1950s studies show that infant monkeys who are properly cared for, fed and nourished BUT who are also deprived of their parent’s touch develop poorly. In fact, given a choice between food and touch, the infant monkeys consistently chose touch.

Love is real. Love is physical and concrete. Love acts! Love does touchable, tangible things.

Jesus is the Love of God Made Visible

Have you noticed through the Easter season how the Risen Jesus does touchable, tangible things? Jesus has his disciples touch his hands and feet. Jesus tells Thomas to put his finger in the mark of the nails and to put his hand in gash made by the spear in his side.

When God loved the world, God did not send an angel or send another messenger like Moses. God did not stand at a far distance and shout out across the universe “I love you.” God sent his only son. God got his hands dirty in the human situation. God became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.

And God got his hands dirty in the human situation.

He ate and drank with sinners to say loud and clear that God loved them—a message we continue to say loud and clear through the weekly meal of Holy Communion.

And Jesus laid his hands on those who were ill and he touched them. He physically touched them*mdash;even the lepers whom many treated like they had swine flu.

And Jesus stepped into the waters of the Jordan river to be drenched with a baptism for the forgiveness of sin—a practice we continue in Holy Baptism.

John says it so clearly in the Gospel that we hear today: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd…runs away because he does not love, he does not care for the sheep.” Love acts! Love is real. Love is concrete.

Jesus is the love of God made visible. That is what the disciple John hammers home is his first letter. It’s all about the love of God. Jesus is the love of God made visible.

The Love of God Seeks to Make us Lovers, too

And that love of God calls us to be lovers, too, whose actions are clear and whose motivations are made visible to the world.

The baptisms of Lucas and Thomas this morning make me think back to my own daughter and her early years and to all the “surprises” that came with being a brand new parent. And if you want to have some surprises, just have a child. It will change the way you look at the world.

And one of the biggest surprises that I had as a parent had to deal with touch. I thought that all infant children were just naturally huggy, cuddly and kissy with their parents. I thought that all infant children just naturally took to their mother’s breast and clung to their parents right away.

But, no. Kick and scratch and bite and poop and poop and poop. That’s what babies do naturally. You have to teach those little buggers how to love. And the way we learn to love is by being loved in real, visible, concrete ways.

And what Christians believe and teach and confess is that it all begins with God. God is love. And we love because God first loved us—not just in word and speech, but in deed and action. In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

It is as we said last week, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”

Changed by Baptism

And nothing shows that better than Holy Baptism. The love of God is what is poured out on us through water and the Spirit so that we might become the loving children of God, too. Children of God who make the love of God visible, real and concrete through tangible deeds and actions.

Preparing for the baptisms that we have today, Ralph and Jennie shared with me a daily experience they are having with Thomas which is very similar to the experience that Laurie and I had with our own daughter when she was Thomas’s age.

Every night around 7:30 P.M. Thomas starts to get fussy, whiney and cranky. He is tired. And he is stinky. And he is agitated from all the stresses of the day. But then Jennie and Ralph give him a bath. Thomas just loves his bath. And from those waters there emerges a peaceful, loving, calm, sweet-smelling child that just wants to melt into his parents’ arms.

And what a great picture this is of the very change that our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus makes in us.

Without Jesus we are nothing more than just a bunch of whiny, stinky, fussy sinners focused on ourselves. But through our baptism we emerge as calm, peaceful, sweet-smelling children of God who seek to do the Father’s will by believing in Jesus and loving others in his name.

God’s Work, Our Hands

In the ELCA we have a saying: “God’s work. Our hands.”

It is our way of saying that all love begins with God. It all beings with God. But it continues through the very real and tangible things that we do.

Love acts! Love is real and concrete. And it does very touchable and tangible things. And any parent can tell you that.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

Third Sunday of Easter April 26, 2009 See what Love 1 John 3:1-7

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

See Children of God

The word for today is “Look.” Look at what we are. Look at what Easter did to us. Look at what we have become because of the death and resurrection of Jesus

“See what love the Father has given us—that we should be called the children of God.”

It is just as Saint John said at the start of his great Gospel. “And the word became flesh and dwell among us full of grace and truth.” “And to all who receive him, who believe in his name he gave power. Power to become the children of God.” Born not of blood and flesh. But rather born of God.

Power-filled, spirit-led, grace-full, believing, trusting children of God. That is what we became because of Jesus and his death and resurrection. That’s what we are because of Easter. “Just look and see,” John says, “Just look and see.”

Whoa! Where Did That Come From?

But do we always look like it? Do we always look like the children of God? Do we always appear to the world like Jesus did—God’s true child?

Tell me if I am wrong, but I think there are days when every parent looks at their children in utter astonishment and amazement and says, “Whoa! Wait a minute. Where did that come from? I didn’t teach you that word. I didn’t model for you that behavior.”

And does God ever think that way about us. Does God ever look at us as though we are his wayward children? Does God ever say to us: “I didn’t teach you that word; I didn’t model for you that behavior”?

In his first letter, John is very kind to us…and gives us kids a bit of a pass. He says, “the reason that the world doesn’t recognize us as God’s children is because the world didn’t know Jesus as God’s son.” And certainly that is true.

But let’s be honest now. There are times when we don’t act like the children of God either or talk like them. And that is true, too.

We act like kids, yes, but whiney kids whose hearts and minds are persistently self-focused. Our wants. Our comforts. Our hopes. Our needs.

We don’t want what God demands:  sacrificial giving, justice for the poor, creating a hospitable welcome to the stranger. We are not fully yet what God created us to be.

God See Us Through the Savior

That is precisely why we need a Savior. On the cross we see him. The love of God made flesh…dwelling among us…giving us the power and grace to become the children of God.

I love what our children did for us last week. And if you missed the children’s sermon last week, you missed a good one.

On one side of their hand we put a red mark to remind us of the wounds in Jesus’ hands and feet and side. And on the other side we put a heart to say that those wounds came out of the Father’s love for us. Two sides of the same hand: the wounds…the love. Reaching out to us to make us children too.

When God looks at us without Jesus all God sees is just a bunch of whiny kids. Spoiled brats. Rebellious children. God sees in us a whole host of things that God did not put there.

But, when God looks at through Jesus, it is completely different. First God looks at Jesus on the cross. And all that God sees is his obedient son saying, “Not my will, but thine be done” and “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

And then God looks at those who cling to the coattails of Christ’s saving act in faith. Those receive him and believe in his name. And now all that God sees are children of his grace. Kids who look like Jesus, too.

Their sins stand in the way no longer. For God sees them as ones who have been marked and stamped with his son’s cross.

That’s why we Lutheran love infant baptism. We love it. We absolutely love it. Because there is nothing like an infant baptism to show that it all belongs to God and not to us.

It happens by God’s grace and not by our behavior and good works. See what love…see what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God.

There is nothing like an infant baptism to show that that love does not depend on any work of ours. It all belongs to God. And get ready for infant baptism. We have bunch coming in the next two weeks.

We Know that We Are Sinners

Sometimes I hear people say, “I don’t believe in Christianity because those Christians are such hypocrites.” In fact I heard someone say that on TV last week.

But let me tell that there is no bigger hypocrite than that smug, self-righteous, sanctimonious person who stands apart from Jesus pointing at Christian hypocrites.

We Christians know that we are sinners. We know it. We don’t need somebody on TV to tell us that. In fact one of the first things we do every Sunday is to confess our sins. We confess that we are sinners.

And we say the very thing that Saint John said last week. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Those are hardly the words of a hypocrite, now are they? But we also know and say this, too: that “God is faithful and just. And if we confess our sins, God will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Forgiven Sinners Do Effective Ministry

And if we only take one long look at those forgiven sinners, we will see Christians doing some of the most effective social ministry on this planet.

Food shipments to the poorest of the poor in Africa. Health services world wide and a Free Clinic in Lorain. Adoption services. Campus ministries. Hospital chaplaincy. Disaster relief. Camping ministries. Criminal reentry. The list goes on and on. These are ministries that we are involved and support through our mission dollars.

In fact this summer at our churchwide assembly in Minneapolis, ELCA Lutherans will have an opportunity to be part of an initiative to help wipe malaria off the face of the planet.

The largest foundation in the world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, sought us ELCA Lutherans out to be their agents in delivering medical services in Africa. They sought us out because two church bodies have a reputation for delivering the goods where they are need. Us and the Methodists.

God’s Work. Our Hands

The point is this. The loving work of God is made visible through our hands. “Gods work. Our hands.” We become children of God who make the love of God visible just like Jesus did on the cross.

Maybe that might cost us some wounds. It did for Jesus. And we might get some scars and make many mistakes along the way. But through those wounds and efforts God’s love is made real and concrete.

Just look and see.“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God…and indeed that is what we are.”

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

Second Sunday of Easter
April 19, 2009
Eye & Ear Witnesses
1 John 1:1-2:2

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Surprise!

Here we go again with an old familiar part of the Easter story. It is the part that children like to hear because of its great surprise and happy ending—the way in which the Risen Lord appears to his disciples on Easter Day. Through doors locked tight with bolts of fear emerges the resurrected Christ.

And if we take this dramatic entrance and play with it a bit with childlike imagination, I can almost picture Jesus jumping out from behind the stone of death with a big grin upon his face shouting, “Surprise!” And surprised they were. Too surprised to believe this was their Lord.

And so, Jesus had to eat a little fish to prove he was no ghost. And he had them touch his hands and feet. And he opened up their ears to understand the Scriptures that it is written “that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise…and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” And that they are witnesses of these things.”

Which simply is to say that this great surprise really should have been no surprise at all. God always had it in his heart to do these things all along.

The Father Enters With Jesus Too

They saw him. They touched him. And they heard him. They were eye-witnesses and ear-witness and finger-witnesses to the Risen Lord. And because they were there, we can be there and be in this happy ending, too. We can hear what they heard. And see what they saw. And feel what they touched. Just like we were there, too, that first Easter day.

And what they saw and heard and touched was the resurrected Jesus. They saw Jesus. But through the eyes and ears and lips of John, the telling of this story takes on one additional twist.

There is one other person in the room, who is really present there with Jesus, for the disciples to see and hear and feel. There is not one but two who walked into that room that first Easter day.

And we could go as far to say that if in fact that other person had not been there with Jesus, then his death and resurrection would have no purpose in it. Do you see him? Do you feel him there with Jesus.

“What was from the beginning, what we heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands,” this John says, “we declare also to you.”

And what was it that John heard and saw and felt? It was the Father. It was God the Father and the Life the Father had given that entered that locked-up room with Jesus.

Our Drapes Are Closed

I doubt if John saw it at the time. I bet he was too surprised, too scared, too amazed just like all the rest of them, to see God the Father working in and through Jesus. The drapes were still closed before his eyes and the light bulb in his brain was off. The circuit still was broken.

Only when Saint John had time to think about it and reflect on the resurrection of Jesus did he see so clearly how God the Father, too, was there. The dad of Jesus was present there in his son.

At first all they noticed was that Jesus had come back alive. But, as the days went on, they discovered something more had happened. They had come alive in a new life with the Father which was as different from the old life as night is from day.

And I doubt whether we see it all the time, either. Often our heads are closed up in dark little rooms with dark and heavy shades over our eyes and darkness in our brain. And the presence of a fatherly God goes totally unnoticed.

God is the Author of our life and its Provider. God gives us a place to live and the where-with-all to live it. God takes an active interest in everything we do and gives us both freedom and direction.

God is always as close as a single word of prayer away. Just the word “Abba” connects us with him right away. Instantly. Immediately.

The Sin of Brushing God Aside

And yet, we brush God right aside and act as if he were not there. As fallen children we make a tyrant out of “Dad” and we rebel against his rule. Our Father doesn’t help us build our lives, but ruins it with his prehistoric ways of thinking and weird ideas of what we are to do.

If only he would come out of the dark ages into the light he might be an okay guy. But for now Dad is the enemy. And would we do best to keep our distance from him.

And yet, if God our Father seems far and distance, it is not because of God. It is because of us. Our distance and our sin. And if ever it seems that God is far away in outer space, unapproachable and unknowable, it is because we have put him there in our attempt to run our lives alone.

And so, John, an original eye-witness puts it to us this way: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [But] if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” BECAUSE… “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the entire world.”

A Great New Beginning—Another Genesis

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not so much a “happy ending, as it is a Great Beginning, another Genesis, that puts us back on track again on good terms with our Father.

The death which separated us from God. The sin that made us strangers. The darkness of our mistaken understandings. The lies we tell ourselves to shift the blame. All these no longer stand between us and God to keep us apart from our Father in a little room closed tight with locks of our own making.

Christ has broken through. Jesus has been on both sides now. With one hand he reaches out for his Father and with the other hand he reaches out for us. And first through death then resurrection he pulls the two together.

Jesus did not appear in that Upper Room to dazzle us with another miracle or to make a theatrical entrance with a dramatic flair. He did it to open up a new way of life. A life with dad.

The resurrection of Jesus a happy ending? Oh, no. It is not a happy ending. It is a Great Beginning! Our Life with the Father.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster