easter02-2011

TITLE: “Peace be with you”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for this morning is from John 20.  We focus on the words, Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, Peace be with you.

We have heard the story of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  We have heard how he crushed Satan and won salvation for all who believe His Word.  This is the victory of God over all the powers of darkness and despair.  So why is it that the Sunday after Easter always seems like a letdown?  In the Church year this Sunday is sometimes called Low Sunday.  I’m not sure if this refers to low attendance or how low the disciples felt in our Gospel lesson, but it is certainly true that things are different for the disciples and for us.

Our Gospel lesson takes place the evening Jesus’ rose from the dead.  Last week we heard of the morning’s events.  Jesus rises from the dead, and appears to Mary Magdalene, and says her name.  When she went to tell the disciples, though, they didn’t believe her.  They thought she was crazy, or perhaps was drunk.  So that brings us to this week’s lesson

In our text the disciples are hiding behind closed doors for fear of the Jews.  Jesus has risen from the dead, but the disciples are afraid.  They are afraid of the Jews, they are afraid they are going to be found out, they are afraid that they have put their hope in a dead God.  What could be more pathetic than that?

That is how it goes with our faith, too.  It’s easy to feel good on Easter morning.  The music, the readings, the beauty of the service, everything points to the wonder of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  But what about later?  What about after the glow of the resurrection seems to wear off?  What about those times when you are alone with your sins.  What about those times in your faith-life when you feel like you can get no breath, when you feel like you are choking or being asphyxiated because it just isn’t in you?

We’ve all been there.  Like the disciples, our emotions as Christians ebbs and flows.  There are times when we feel close to God, but there are other times when we feel far away and distant, unconnected, afraid and alone.  That is where the disciples were that first Easter evening.  They were there with you.

This is how Satan seeks to work on you, my friends.  The last thing Satan wants you to believe is the connection between Easter and your faith.  If He can convince you that Christ’s death and resurrection were just events from a storybook a long time ago, if he can convince you of that, then Jesus’ resurrection from the dead has no meaning.  That is Satan’s ploy.  He seeks to convince you that you don’t believe.  He is willing to lie, deceive, convince, do whatever he can in His power to draw you away from Christ’s words of forgiveness and life.

Left to yourself, you are stuck, right there in league with Satan.  But you are not left to yourself.  That is the point of our Gospel lesson today.  Jesus appears in the midst of them and says, Peace be to you.  Jesus knows His disciples don’t believe in Him at that time.  He knows that they are filled with unbelief and doubt.  He also knows they are full of fear at the Law and that they need to hear words of comfort and hope.

So He says to them, Peace be with you.  Notice how tender these words are in the ears of the disciples.  Notice how tender these words are to you.  Peace.  The wall of separation between God and man was broken when Jesus burst forth from the tomb.  God and man are not longer at enmity; they are no longer at war with each other.  They are at peace.  But like prisoners of war, the disciples have not heard the news.  They haven’t received the fruit of Jesus’ work on the cross and in the tomb.  So Jesus preaches to them and says, peace be with you.

They are great words.  With those words Jesus comforts you and gives you hope.  Jesus died and rose again from the dead to put those words in your ears.  Peace be with you.  He doesn’t pummel with the Law, he doesn’t mock them or condemn for their unbelief, although I suppose the disciples deserved it, as do we.  No, Jesus gives them the only thing that could actually make a difference.  He gave them peace.  As Jesus uses the word here, it means the same thing as forgiveness.  He forgives them their sins.  They are gone.

But Jesus isn’t satisfied to simply forgive the since of the eleven some 2000 years ago.  No, He then gives them the peace again, and says to them: whoever sins you forgiven, they are forgiven; and whoever’s sins you hold back, they are held back.

In Lutheran theology we call this the Office of the Keys.  Jesus gives the Keys to the disciples, now called the Apostles or sent-ones.  He gives them the keys and says that their work, they life task is to be about forgiving sins.  They are to release sins, get rid of them and cast them into the depth of the sea.

That is the work of the Christian Church.  That is why we gather here Sunday after Sunday.  God draws you to this house week after week so that He can say to you, Peace be with you.  I forgive you your sins. That is the point.  God does forgive your sins.  Remember the words from the end of our Gospel lesson, These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.

God puts His peace on you.  He gives it to you, freely, not because of any merit or worthiness on your part, but because of His great and abundant mercy, which knows no bounds.  This is what the world doesn’t get about Easter.  For so many, even for many Christians, Easter is about the drama of the event or the pageantry or whatever.  Now we do make a big deal about Easter.  But we do so because Jesus died and rose again for us.  Remember again the words from the Creed: who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the virgin Mary and was made man. God came down to earth with a purpose.

The old title for this Sunday is Quasimodo Geniti, from the Introit, which begins, “As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the Word.”  The power of Easter lies in the Word of God.  For it is in that Word of God, peace be with you, that all of Christ’s work on the cross and in the tomb becomes yours.   He puts those words into your ears here on Sunday.  He puts those words on your heart in Holy Baptism.  And He puts those words of forgiveness in your mouth in His Holy Supper.  As we prayed in the Introit, open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Our Lord gives you His very Word made flesh here today.  Receive it with thanksgiving, for all of God’s work is now given to you.  Peace be with you. In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trinity 22 (November 8, 2009)

Matthew 18: 21-35

For an audio mp3 of this sermon, Trinity22-2009

TITLE: “Forgiveness without Calculation”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Gospel lesson just read, the parable of the unmerciful servant.

Forgiveness without calculation, that’s the goal. That’s what God does. To forgive someone their sins means to not count it against them. To forgive means to forget, for they go together. It means the wipe the slate clean. It means to delete the spreadsheet, eliminate the debt calculator. It means to lose your memory that such an event ever happened. Forgiveness means starting over.

If you’ve ever been forgiven of a big debt, you know what kind of a feeling I’m talking about. There’s a sense of unreality about it. It’s too good to be true. You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now of course, debts don’t just involve money. You can owe a debt to your wife or husband or mom or dad or children that goes far beyond anything you could ever pay. It is possible to mess up so badly that I don’t believe that forgiveness is even possible because I’m such a terrible person. But sometimes our spouse surprises us. Sometimes your mom or dad forgive you far more than you ever would have imagined. Sometimes things really are better after you confess and receive absolution.

But why don’t we ever expect that kind of forgiveness? The answer to that is easy. We do not forgive by nature. Oh I suppose that by nature we forgive at some level, but in one hidden part of our minds we keep a running total, just in case. We are by nature more concerned about protecting ourselves than about forgiving. That means when I forgive, what I really mean is that I will wait until just the right time to bring this back up, and then POW! Right in the kisser. I will forgive, but I will never forget.

You know this is wrong. We pray it every time we pray the Lord’s prayer:

The Fifth Petition
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

What does this mean?
We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

So this is the situation in which Peter comes up to Jesus and asks the question, “how many times should I forgive? Seven times?” You have to admit that forgiving someone 7 times sounds like a lot. Yet Jesus’ response makes it sound like this is nothing! No, Jesus says. I say to you seventy times seven. Well, 490 is a nearly impossible number to wrap your brain around. Can you imagine forgiving your spouse for the same infraction 490 times in a row? Can you imagine forgiving your parents for their impatience 490 times? It is hard to imagine. This is why the old saying is true, to err is human, but to forgive is divine. That kind of forgiveness just seems impossible for us to grasp.

Now to demonstrate the near impossibility of our situation, Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven, he says, is like a banker that decides to settle up all his accounts. He calls in one small businessman, who owes him about 500 billion dollars. That kind of debt really takes a government to rack up, but that’s what this man owes. It’s hard to imagine that kind of debt. Yet, there it is. The banker is ready to throw him in jail for defaulting on his loans, but the man says to him, “just give me a chance! I’ll come up with a really creative way to pay you back this 500 billion dollars I owe you! Give me more time!” How much time does the man need? There is just no way this little guy is going to pay the banker back. It’s impossible. But the banker then does something un-bankerish: he simply erases the man’s debts. Wipes them out. Gone.

This, of course, is you. The debt you owe to God is far beyond anything you could possibly repay, even if you wanted to. But God, in His mercy, simply forgives the debt. Okay, there’s nothing really simple about it. He takes your debt and puts it on His Son, Jesus. That’s the Gospel, dear friends.

Now back to our parable. So this man, who has gotten a new lease on life by having this massive debt repaid, sees a colleague. This colleague owes him fifty bucks. What should the man do? He is in his rights to demand the money. But this isn’t so much about rights as it is about doing what is right. What is right is to think of the context. The context is that he has been forgiven so much, this fifty bucks is hardly even worth his notice. But what does he do? He throws the guy in jail for not paying him back. Ouch. Talk about not thinking about the context. He demonstrates by his actions that he learned nothing from the bankers generosity.

Now here’s the kicker. The kicker is that this isn’t about a banker and a small businessman at all. It’s about you and God. God has forgiven you all your sins, a debt far beyond anything that anyone could possibly have done against you. What God wants you to do is to forgive your neighbor when he sins against you. All the time, every time. He wants you to forgive them even if they don’t deserve it, which they don’t. He wants you to forgive them, period. He wants you to never hold a grudge, to forget, to put these wounds against you behind you completely. Forgiveness without calculation, that’s what God wants.

But you don’t, do you? No. You hold on. You cling to these sins done against you like they are your very own. And by clinging to these sins, these debts done against you, you actually make it so that God can’t get through. You make it so that God’s forgiveness is dimmed in your own life.

But there is hope, dearly beloved, dearly Baptized. You see, God is not a one stop shop. God not only forgives you once. He does it over and over and over again. He forgives when you cannot. He forgave you in your Baptism, and He continues to forgive you every day of your life. His riches and mercy know no bounds. Absolution, preaching, the Word of God, prayer centered in the Scriptures, and chiefly the Lord’s Supper, through all of these wonderful means, God forgives. He starts over again and again.

God’s mercy goes beyond all bounds. So forgive! Forget! And be at peace, for God has wiped it all away for you, and for those who have sinned against you. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Quasi-modo Geniti (Easter 1 – April 19, 2009)
John 20:19-31

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “Forgiveness”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this Sunday is the Gospel of John just read, particularly the phrases he showed them his hands and his side and again The Lord Jesus breathed on his disciples.

Last week we breathed the free air again of the resurrection of our Lord. This is the time of great joy for the Christian. Christ is risen, and death is defeated! Let us rejoice and be glad in these days of our king’s return from the dead.
But what does it mean? That’s the Lutheran question, isn’t it? What does it mean for us poor sinners, who continue to slog through life, who continue to sin and screw up and suffer and hurt both ourselves and others? Jesus is risen from the dead, but has my life really changed?

Well, one thing that hasn’t changed is our own weaknesses and sinfulness. Like those disciples on that first Easter, we have doubts and fears. The women were afraid at the tomb, the disciples had no idea what to make of our Lord’s resurrection, and Thomas doubted Jesus’ resurrection in its entirety.
What is more, we live even in this Easter joy as if God did not matter and as if I mattered most. How many of you think to serve your neighbor more than yourself. How many have you hurt in thought, word and deed? How many have you slandered or gossiped against? How much have you coveted? Sin abounds, dearly beloved. Our weakness and rebellion seems to have no end.

This is why the “so what” of Easter is so important. The so what of Easter is that God forgives your sins. It’s that simple. Jesus’ death and resurrection have paid the price. God forgives your sins. He does not count them against you. He counts them against Christ on the cross, and that has now been paid.

But if that isn’t enough, God has instituted and put into place a delivery system so that this forgiveness would go into your ears and heart. God is not satisfied with having this left in a book, like some sort of manual you are to follow. No, God has created the Church and the Office of the Ministry, the pastoral office, so that your sins would be forgiven in the flesh, so that you would hear it with your own ears over and over and over again. For while we are weak and rebellious, He knows our sins and seeks to overcome them by the power of His Word.

He does this in the Church. Martin Luther writes about this great work of the Church in the Large Catechism:

55 Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. So even though we have sins, the ‹grace of the› Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us. For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but ‹continuous, uninterrupted› forgiveness of sin. This is because God forgives us and because we forgive, bear with, and help one another [Galatians 6:1–2].

This is a forgiveness place. That is why we are hear. We receive God’s forgiveness through the ministry of the Word, and in turn we learn to forgive one another.

Now you know as well as I do that forgiveness doesn’t come any easier for us than faith came for doubting Thomas. This is why forgiveness doesn’t just happen once. Forgiveness is an event that was won for you on the cross and the empty tomb, but it keeps coming, it keeps working, it continues until the end of time. That is God’s fleshly love for you.

That is the purpose of the Church. The church is the forgiveness place. In the same way, that is the purpose of the Office of the Ministry. We confess the following together in the Small Catechism:

What is the Office of the Keys?*
?The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

Where is this written?*
?This is what St. John the Evangelist writes in chapter twenty: The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven’ (John 20:22-23).

What do you believe according to these words?*
?I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

That is a mouthful, I’ll grant you. But it is very simple. The purpose of pastors is to forgive sins. This happens publicly in preaching and teaching and in the public absolution, in baptism and in the Sacrament of the Altar.

This also happens privately in holy absolution. God uses all of these means to continuously work forgiveness in you, so that your conscience may be at peace, so that you may live as He intends you to love, free and at peace with Him and with one another. And because you have this forgiveness, you are free to forgive one another. There is nothing to fear in forgiveness. It is yours. It is abundant and knows no end. So forgive one another. Be free of your hatred and bickering. Be free of your doubts and let go of the hatreds that you harbor. Christ has taken them with Him to the grave. Why cling to them any longer?

This is our great and mighty work here at Messiah Lutheran Church. Well, it is God’s great and mighty work, and in His He lets us be a part of His holy purpose. So come to the Altar of God, be forgiven, live and be free in Jesus Christ, the one who died and rose again for your forgiveness. In His name, Amen.