by Jeffrey Spencer | Jun 16, 2025 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for June 15
Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday – June 15, 2025
Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Of the fifty-two Sundays in the church year, not to mention all the various Christian festivals and commemorations that fall during the week, we have one day on the liturgical calendar which is devoted to a doctrine, a teaching of the church. That day is today as we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday.
The Holy Trinity is important for several reasons. It is a complex theological formula confessed in the creeds which both proclaims and safeguards the divinity of Christ. It is a doctrine gleaned from scripture (particularly John’s gospel) which describes the mystery of God being three distinct persons while remaining one God. The Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is also the proper name for God, given to us by Jesus himself as the name in which we are to baptize.
All of this is important. Every Christian adult should have some basic knowledge of the doctrine of the Trinity, if for no other reason than to know when that language is being used by other religious groups in different and non-Christian ways – which it often is!
But as important as it is to know what the Trinity is, it is also important to know what the Trinity does. In fact, in scripture, more often than not, the Trinity is revealed through what this one God in three persons does.
For instance, all the way back in the first chapter of Genesis, there are hints of the Trinity which are revealed through what the Trinity does. As God created the first humans, God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” Do you hear the plural language? Christians have long interpreted this plural language as a reference to the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all there from the very beginning – as the New Testament claims over and over again. Here the Holy Trinity is revealed by what the Trinity did: creating a man and a woman in the image and likeness of God to live in a life-giving and life-bearing relationship.
Another fun place to look for the Trinity in the Old Testament is in Genesis 18, when Abraham and Sarah were visited by three mysterious strangers. God had promised this elderly couple that they would bear a son, and that their descendants would be as many as the stars, and that he would make of them a great nation. This promise was hard to believe. It seemed too good to be true. Later, three strangers visited them in their camp. One of them told them that in one year’s time, Sarah would bear this child. Some Bibles capitalize the word “He” for this visitor, even midsentence, using a grammatical tradition reserved for references to God, as a little clue that this was not some random visitor. Christian interpretation going back at least as far as St. Augustine has understood this visit from these three mysterious strangers as a visit from the Holy Trinity, who again is made known through what the Trinity did – namely, assuring God’s people of God’s promises.
This pattern continues in our gospel reading for today, only here the persons of the Trinity are specifically named as Jesus describes how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together to do certain things.
The context for what Jesus says about the Trinity’s work is important. Jesus is in the Upper Room with his disciples. He is preparing them for what is coming next. He is preparing them for his crucifixion, which is imminent. He is preparing them for the suffering they will experience as his disciples as they carry on his ministry in the future. Throughout this section of John’s gospel Jesus has been dropping hints about the challenges they would face, the difficulties they would encounter. He tells them that the future will test them in ways that can’t even begin to imagine. “I still have many things to say to you,” Jesus tells them, “But you cannot bear them now.” The burdens they would face as his followers would be heavy indeed – too heavy for them to bear all at once, too heavy for them to know about ahead of time.
But while Jesus doesn’t disclose all that his disciples would face in the months and years and decades and centuries to come, he does make them a promise. He promises that the Holy Trinity will be doing certain things.
Jesus promises them that the Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, will guide them in their mission. He promises them that the Spirit of truth will lead them into all the truth.
Jesus promises them that this Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, will declare to his disciples all that is to come. That is to say, the Spirit will continually point them to the future he has in store for them, a future beyond their struggles and difficulties, a future of resurrection and new life.
Jesus promises that the Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, will take what belongs to him and declare it to them. The Spirit will impute to them Jesus’ righteousness, his holiness, his status before God. The Spirit will impart to them his power and his peace. The Spirit will hand over to them his undying love, his victory over sin and death, his intimate and eternal relationship with the Father.
This gospel reading is in the lectionary for today because it gives us a portrait of the Holy Trinity. It is perhaps a faint sketch in broad strokes, but all three of them are there! And this blessed Trinity is made known, Jesus says here, by what this Trinity does. This Trinity, Jesus says, will come to us with truth, with promises, with gifts – all of which will make the unbearable bearable for us.
In our reading from Romans for today, St Paul makes the bold claim that we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Boasting in our suffering is not the same thing as our modern habit of idolizing victimhood. Instead, it is the acknowledgement that when we face the unbearable, when we are in over our heads, when our strength gives out, it is then that conditions are ripe for the Holy Spirit to enter in and go to work. It is when we despair of ourselves that we find true hope in Christ. It is when we are empty and powerless that God the Father pours his love into our hearts. Here too, the Holy Trinity is revealed by what the Trinity does, namely transforming suffering into hope, a hope that does not disappoint.
These Biblical vignettes show us that the Holy Trinity is not some dry theological formula. The Holy Trinity describes the one God in three persons who is at work doing things. The Holy Trinity describes the one God in three persons who is doing things even now. The Holy Trinity describes the one God in three persons who is doing things for you.
The Holy Trinity didn’t just create Adam and Eve. The Trinity created you. As Luther invites us to confess in the Small Catechism, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that God has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.”
The Holy Trinity didn’t just visit Abraham and Sarah. The Trinity visits you, sometimes in ways you don’t recognize or understand, but more frequently and recognizably through Word and Sacrament. The Trinity visits you through these mysterious means of grace to assure you of the promises God made to you when you were baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And Jesus didn’t just promise that the Holy Trinity would help the Twelve Apostles. The Trinity continues to be at work to help us too. The Trinity leads us into truth in an age of untruth. The Trinity speaks to us through God’s Word of the things that are to come, the future God has in store for us, a future beyond our struggles and difficulties, a future of resurrection and healing and new life. The Trinity takes what belongs to Jesus and declares it to us, giving us his victory over sin and death, announcing that we have been forgiven, giving us peace with God. The Trinity is among us to help us bear what is unbearable in our lives, transforming suffering into hope, a hope that does not disappoint us because God’s love is being poured into our hearts.
The Holy Trinity is a vitally important doctrine of the Christian church. There is much that is important to know about what the Trinity is. But we get there primarily through what scripture tells us the Trinity does. And as we gather in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, this blessed Trinity is still doing things, so that by faith we would be drawn into this relationship which is eternal and undivided, loving and life-giving, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jun 9, 2025 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for June 8
Sermon for Pentecost Sunday – June 8, 2025
Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:14-17, John 14:8-17, 25-27
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit was sent by God the Father through the promise of Jesus the Son so that you would hear the Word of God. Just listen to what Jesus says about the Spirit in our gospel reading for today. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth who will teach us everything by reminding us of all Jesus has said to us. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s job is to keep what Jesus said in front of us. It is to keep the Word of God in our ears, so that we would hear it and receive it and trust it and live by it.
The Apostle Paul says much the same thing in our reading from Romans for today. Paul writes that the Holy Spirit was sent to bear witness – that is, to communicate, to speak to us. The Holy Spirit is sent to bear witness to us that we are children of God! The Holy Spirit is sent to us to communicate God’s Word to us, assuring us that because we are children of God, we are heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ, poised to inherit all that belongs to him – his righteousness, his glory, his eternal life.
The Holy Spirit was sent by God the Father through the promise of Jesus the Son so that you would hear the Word of God, and nowhere is this made clearer than in the Pentecost story we heard from the book of Acts.
Pentecost was already a holy day long before the event we heard about in this reading. It was a Jewish celebration long before it was a Christian one. It was originally something of a first fruits festival to celebrate the wheat harvest – not unlike our celebration of Thanksgiving. By Jesus time it had also become a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, but it retained the character of a day of thanksgiving. And like our Thanksgiving, it was a major holiday for travel. This festival drew Jews from all over the world back to their homeland to celebrate. And when then came home, they brought with them the different languages they now spoke, the different languages of the places they now lived.
As the disciples were celebrating the Jewish festival of Pentecost, suddenly there was a sound like the rush of a violent wind. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. And what happened when they were filled with the Holy Spirit? They began to speak! They began to speak in the wide variety of languages of those present. It is important to note that this was not some esoteric spiritual language. It was a miracle to be sure, but these were real, well-established human languages. Empowered by the Spirit, the disciples began to speak in the various languages of those gathered. Amazed and astonished, the crowd said, “How can this be? Aren’t these guys all locals? Aren’t they all from Galilee? But we hear them speaking to us in our own language about God’s deeds of power!
Some sneered, of course. Some thought they were drunk on new wine and speaking gibberish. But Peter stood up and said “No, no. That’s not it. We are not drunk,” offering up as compelling evidence that it was only nine o’clock in the morning. No, Peter explained, this is what the prophet Joel said would happen. The Spirit was being poured out upon all flesh so that God’s sons and daughters would prophecy, so that they would speak God’s Word, so that they would proclaim God’s deeds of power, so that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord would be saved.
This is just what Jesus said would happen. This is exactly what Jesus promised to his disciples in the Upper Room. Jesus promised he would send the Spirit of truth. Jesus promised that this Spirit would teach. Jesus promised that this Spirit would remind them of all he had said. That’s what was happening now as the Spirit empowered the disciples to speak, proclaiming God’s deeds of power.
There is a quote that floats around the church that is a pet peeve of mine. The quote is attributed to St. Francis, although no one can document that he actually said or wrote it. The quote is, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” I’ve seen this in so many places over the years. I know it is well meaning, but it is just wrong. It fails to see that words are the Holy Spirit’s primary tool! To be fair, there is a kernel of truth in it in that sometimes we need to earn people’s trust with our actions before we can speak the gospel to them. True enough. Sometimes we need people to know we care before they will care about what we know. Fine. Point taken. But ultimately the gospel demands to be spoken! Scripture tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Ultimately, using words is necessary! Words are what the Spirit uses to create faith!
This is what we celebrate on Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate that the Spirit has come to empower the church to speak of God’s deeds of power, so that faith would come through hearing, so that everyone can hear what God has done for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, so that everyone can call on the name of the Lord and be saved. God sends the Spirit to speak that Word to us, to stoke fire of our faith so that we would continue to believe. God also sends the Spirit to speak that Word through us, so that others would hear and come to believe too.
God continues to work across language barriers to make his deeds of power known. A couple Sundays ago we celebrated the First Communion of one of our young people who is bilingual. She is fluent in both English and the Peruvian dialect of Spanish. I had her in my office with her parents as we reviewed the Bible stories I’d instructed them to learn together. And while this young student understood me, there were times when her mother spoke to her in Spanish to help clarify things, and when her mother spoke to her of God’s deeds of power, it landed differently. This was the voice and language this young girl had been hearing from the womb. This was the voice and the language she heard singing her lullabies as a baby. This was the voice and the language which blessed her at bedtime and prayed over her. When her mother spoke to her of God’s deeds of power, teaching her, reminding her of the stories they had learned from God’s Word, she seemed to hear it more deeply.
This reminded me of two things. First, it reminded me of Luther’s insight that parents are the primary pastors in their children’s lives, and how important it is for parents to be sharing God’s Word with their children. But second, as this mother tenderly put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and spoke to her in this voice and language of the heart, it occurred to me that this was a beautiful image of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit was sent by God the Father through the promise of the Son to help us hear God’s Word more deeply, more intimately, so that it lands in our hearts in a way that creates faith.
The wind and fire of Pentecost seem to be the stars of the show, but they are merely there to get our attention. They are there to point us to what is called a theophany, a dramatic inbreaking of God’s presence. The real event of Pentecost is simply people talking about God’s deeds of power. The real event of Pentecost is the preaching of the gospel, using words.
And so Pentecost has never really ended. Pentecost is more than a once-a-year festival. Pentecost marks the birth of the holy Christian church, in which the Holy Spirit continues to speak of God’s deeds of power, proclaiming what God has done for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Just as a mother tenderly spoke the Word to her daughter in the language of her heart, so too does the Spirit gather you in close in order to speak to you, in order to teach you, sharing God’s Word with you. The Spirit of truth draws you in close in order to remind you of all Jesus has said, to remind you of all he has done for you.
So hear it once again: because of God’s deeds of power in Jesus Christ you are forgiven. Because of his death and resurrection, you have been redeemed. By his grace you have been made a beloved child of God. You have been given a new life guided by the Spirit, and you have a future inheritance in store for you in his eternal kingdom.
Pentecost continues this very day, this very moment, as the Holy Spirit is sent by God the Father through the promise of the Son to put this Good News in your ears once again.
May this Good News be in our mouths too, so that others would hear and believe.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jun 5, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for June 1
Sermon for the Ascension of our Lord – June 1, 2025
Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ.
On this last day of the Easter season, we hear how the risen Jesus was carried up into heaven to take his place at the right hand of the Father. We also hear that before Jesus was taken up into the clouds, he gave his disciples a mission. And to help them carry out this mission he also gave them a blessing.
The mission Jesus gave the disciples was to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in his name. They were to be witnesses to all that he had accomplished by his death and resurrection. They were charged with carrying the Good News of Christ’s saving work into the world, beginning from Jerusalem, on to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
This continues to be the mission of the church. The church Jesus founded has been called to proclaim repentance and announce forgiveness, to proclaim both law and gospel, God’s commands and God’s promises. The church’s mission is to bear witness to the Good News that by his death and resurrection Jesus Christ has reconciled a sinful humanity to a holy God, so that we can live a new life with him that begins now and continues forever. This is all a gift of grace, received through faith. Proclaiming this, bearing witness to it, is the mission of the church – then and now.
The devil fights against this mission tooth and nail. The world doesn’t necessarily want us to be engaged in it either. Heck, sometimes the church itself seems to be more interested in other things, forgetting the primary mission given to us by our Lord! We always seem to be getting side-tracked and distracted.
Don’t get me wrong – the church may well get involved in any number of worthy projects as we live out our faith by serving our neighbors, but the primary and most urgent mission we have as the church, according to Jesus’ own last words before he ascended, is to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin. It is to bear witness to the Good News of what Christ has done for us.
After giving the disciples this mission, Jesus gave them his blessing. Jesus lifted up his hands and blessed them. He blessed the disciples, and he blessed the mission he gave them. By lifting up his hands to give this blessing Jesus was using the same physical gesture the priests in the temple used to put God’s blessing on the people at the end of worship. This was the posture used to put God’s love, God’s grace, God’s power, God’s blessing on them. Jesus used this very same gesture. He lifted up his hands to put his blessing on them, showing them that his support was covering them, that his love was over them.
As many of you know, our oldest son got married last month. Back in the fall, he had some time alone with the father of his now-wife. As the two sat together in a deer stand, our son conjured up the courage to ask him if he could marry his daughter. He wasn’t simply asking for his permission. He was asking whether he would support it, whether he would get behind it, whether he would be pleased with it. He was asking for his blessing, which he gave.
And then last month when they exchanged their vows, all four of us parents lifted up our hands and laid them on the couple’s shoulders, praying for God’s blessing and giving them ours. We assured them that we would support them, that we were behind them, that we were pleased with what they were doing. We blessed them. That’s what a blessing is!
In the same way, our Lord Jesus puts his blessing on his disciples. In the same way, he puts his blessing on his church today. He puts his blessing on us and on the mission he has given us. This blessing is not only an authorization. It is not only permission. It is a promise to support us in this mission. It is a promise to be behind us, to be there for us through the various challenges and difficulties we encounter. It is an assurance that he is pleased with us as we carry out the mission he has given us.
This blessing is vitally important, because there are times when this mission is hard. There are times when it leads to hostility and to heartache. There are times when it feels like we are losing ground. There are times when it feels like everything is aligned against us, from the culture to demographics to struggles within the church. There are times when we get discouraged or frustrated or just tired.
The church has always faced this threefold attack from the world, the devil, and our sinful selves. But the church has also always had the hands of Jesus lifted up over it. The church has also always had Jesus’ blessing over us. That is to say, we have his support, his backing, his love and grace carrying us on.
You have been so kind to make such a big deal today about the 25th anniversary of my ordination. When I look back on a quarter of a century as a pastor, I know there is no way I would still be doing this if it weren’t for those hands of Jesus lifted over me, over us, over the mission we share. It has been said that to be a pastor you need the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the skin of a rhinoceros. There are parts of this job that are very difficult. There are parts of it that do not get easier with time. I know there is no way I would still be doing this if it weren’t for this blessing from Jesus, the blessing of his support, his strength, his steadfast love.
This blessing came through the laying on of hands at my ordination. This blessing continues to come through Word and Sacrament, which I need each week as much as you do. This blessing comes embodied through people. It comes through colleagues. It comes through my family, and especially my wife – who knows what kind of day I’ve had just by looking at my face when I walk through the door. This blessing comes through you. It comes through the members of the congregations I’ve served, particularly here at Oak Harbor Lutheran Church. There’s a reason I’ve spent nearly 15 of those 25 years here! (And counting!) Thank you for so beautifully embodying this blessing of Jesus through your support, your encouragement, your love.
There is great joy in ministry too. So much joy. Such deep joy. Our gospel reading tells us the disciples were filled with joy as they returned to the temple after Jesus’ ascension. I get it! And I hope you do too! This joy comes through the ever-present hands of our Lord Jesus lifted over us. This joy comes through his blessing. This joy comes to us as our Lord continues to support us and strengthen us through his Word and his Supper and through each other, through the fellowship we share.
This blessing is over you too. As you participate in the life of the church, enduring its challenges and its frustrations and its disappointments, the blessing of Jesus is upon you. As you carry out your own holy callings in life, your vocations – your role in the family, your work in the world, your ministry here at church – as you carry out these callings, Christ’s blessing is upon you. As you experience hardship and heartache, his hands are over you, supporting you and strengthening you. He is behind you with his steadfast love every step of the way. As we carry out these callings together, he takes great pleasure in our faithfulness.
Our Lord Jesus conquered sin and death for us by enduring the cross, dying, and rising again. After forty days of resurrection appearances, Jesus was carried up into heaven. He was taken up into the clouds. As St. Paul tells us in our reading from Ephesians for today, his ascension was his enthronement as he took his place at the right hand of God, where he is head over all things for the church.
He has given us a mission to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins. He has given us the mission of being witnesses to the Good News of what he has done for us through his death and resurrection, so that others might hear and believe and follow him into a new and renewed life, a life steeped in the grace and love of God, a life lived in joyful obedience to his Word and his will, a life which begins now and continues forever.
As we carry out the mission he has given us, the mighty hands of our ascended Lord remain over us. He gives us the blessing we need so that we can continue to carry it out with great joy.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | May 27, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for May 25
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 25, 2025
John 14:23-29
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
There’s an important bit of context missing from our gospel reading for today. Our reading from John this morning consists of Jesus’ response to a question from Judas (not Iscariot) – but the question itself is left out! It’s like Bible Jeopardy – you get the answer, but you have to guess the question! So, let’s back up a bit and provide this important context.
Jesus had just told the disciples that he would be leaving them. This caused them to become anxious. Their hearts were troubled. And so Jesus hastened to add that he would come to them again in a different way. He told them that the world would not see him, but that they, his disciples, would see him. He would reveal himself to them.
And then Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus, “Lord, how will you reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Our reading for today is Jesus’ response to this question. Jesus is explaining how he will reveal himself to his disciples – and to us – after he has ascended to the Father, so that he might give us his peace.
In response to Judas (not Iscariot’s) question, Jesus said, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
Jesus reveals himself to those keep his word. This is about more than just doing what he says, though that is part of it. Part of the Great Commission is to make disciples who obey everything that he has commanded us, so that’s part of it. But the language here goes deeper. To keep Jesus’ word is to treasure it. It is to hold on to it. It is to cling to it. As Martin Luther wrote in the Small Catechism, it is to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
This word is preserved for us in the Bible. This word is spoken to us in worship. This word is poured over us in Holy Baptism and fed to us in Holy Communion. Those who love Jesus treasure this word because this is how our Lord comes to us. This is how he reveals himself to us. This is how he and the Father come and make a home with us, as we gather around the Word, clinging to it, holding it dear.
Unfortunately, we are foolish and forgetful creatures. Unfortunately, there are times when our love for Jesus grows cold and we neglect this Word. We do not treat it as the treasure it is for us. Unfortunately, the world, the devil, and our sinful selves are very effective at distracting us from this Word, and so we do not hold on to it.
Thankfully, our Lord Jesus knows this about us, and so he sends us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s job, Jesus says, is “to teach you everything and to remind you of all that I have said to you.” The Spirit moves in mysterious ways, to be sure, but there is nothing mysterious about what the Spirit has been sent to do. The Spirit is sent by Jesus to teach us. The Spirit is sent to remind us of everything Jesus has said to us in his Word, so that we might know his peace.
People come up with all kinds of strange and unbiblical ideas about the Spirit. People sometimes think the Spirit is a free agent who comes with new, updated revelations. People sometimes confuse the Spirit with their own internal voice. How convenient it is when the Spirit seems to be affirming all the things you already want to believe or do! People sometimes believe the Spirit is only really at work in exotic or mystical spiritual experiences.
But according to Jesus, the Spirit’s mission and purpose is really quite simple and down to earth. Jesus explains that the Father sends the Spirit in his name to remind us of what Jesus has said. The Spirit’s job is simply to lead our hearts back to his Word.
This is important because when our hearts lose sight of the Word, we end up as anxious as the disciples were. When we drift away from this Word, our hearts become as troubled as theirs were. When we neglect the Word or become distracted from it, we do not have the peace our Lord Jesus came to give us.
Jesus knows how prone we are to anxiousness and troubled hearts, and so he sends his Spirit to help us cling to his Word. After describing what the Spirit is going to come and do, Jesus says, “My peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” This peace is given to us as the Spirit helps us hold fast to his Word.
I had lunch with my sister this past week. We’ve been meeting for lunch just about once a month since our mother died three and a half years ago. As many of you know, our mother’s death was sudden and unexpected and tragic, and our relationship with her was often strained due to her alcoholism and addiction. This left a lot of unresolved issues that we’ve kind of been working through together over these lunches the last few years. It isn’t all we talk about, especially as time goes by, but it still comes up a lot.
Anyway, while my mom could be a hot mess at times, she was very loving, and very affectionate. She often wrote us sweet notes and cards – not only for our birthdays, but sometimes just because. My sister kept a number of the cards and notes our mother sent her. She has hung onto them. She treasures them. She enjoys seeing our mother’s handwriting and the sweet things our mom would write on those cards. On one of the cards our mom had written, “You are so loved.”
On Mother’s Day this year, my sister took that card and went and got a tattoo of those words on her arm, inscribed with our mother’s distinctive handwriting. At lunch this week she pulled up her sleeve and revealed it to me. I’m not really a tattoo guy (I know that’s a dangerous thing to say in a Navy town) but it was really beautiful and very touching. It looked exactly like our mother’s handwriting, and it was exactly the kind of thing she was always saying to us, even when things were messy in our relationship with her. As my sister pulled her sleeve back down, she smiled sweetly and said that those handwritten words on her arm from our mom gave her a sense of peace.
I went to therapy and my sister got a tattoo. We are not the same. But it really is beautiful, and as I came back from our lunch and dove into our gospel reading for this week, I couldn’t help but think that what my sister did and what she said is a good illustration of what this whole gospel reading is about.
Just as my sister treasured my mother’s words, hanging on to those birthday cards with her handwriting, so too do we treasure Jesus’ words for us. That’s why we stand for the gospel reading. We do so because those readings contain the direct words of our Lord Jesus, and so we stand to honor them. We treasure them. We cling to them. We hold them dear.
It is the Holy Spirit’s job to inscribe those words onto us. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to imprint them upon us, reminding us of all that Jesus has said to us.
And so when we are baptized, the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is permanently written on us. These are Christ’s own words inscribed with God’s own handwriting. In baptism, we are marked with the saving cross of Christ forever. We gather for worship to hold sacred and gladly hear God’s holy Word as the Spirit goes to work reminding us of all that Christ has taught us, either himself or through his chosen apostles. Here in worship, we hear the words Christ authorized his church to say, that for his sake all the sins that we confess to him are completely and entirely forgiven. Here in worship, we are fed with Christ’s forgiveness and love as we receive the visible words of Christ’s true body and true blood. These visible words become part of us, part of our bodies! Through these means of grace etched into our lives by the Holy Spirit, Christ reveals himself to us. God the Father and Jesus the Son come to us and make a home with us, just as Jesus said.
We may still struggle with anxiety from time to time. We may well find our hearts troubled by things that are happening in our lives or in our world or even in the church. But that’s why the Spirit keeps calling us back. The Spirit continues to call and gather us in order to continue the work of writing the Word of God onto us. The Spirit continues to inscribe God’s promises onto our hearts, that we might cling to them, so that they might become part of us.
This Spirit is working on you even now. Today, through the Spirit, Jesus says to you, “You are so loved.” Today, through the Spirit, Jesus says to you, “You are so forgiven.” Today, through the Spirit, Jesus says to you, “I am so coming to you, and you are so going to be with me forever – and so do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
And as this word sinks in, as it becomes part of us, our hearts can at last find peace.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | May 23, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for May 18
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Easter – May 18, 2025
Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are few words that have the power to grab our attention like the word “new.” You perk up and pay attention when you hear that your favorite musician has a new song coming out. You notice when your favorite author has a new book about to be released, or when there’s a new episode of your favorite TV show about to air. Marketing executives have long known that putting the word “new” on a product or in an advertisement is enough to grab people’s attention. But it isn’t just materialism or novelty which makes this word powerful. Deep down we are all longing for something new: a new hope, a new start, a new life, a new creation.
In our gospel reading for today Jesus tells his disciples he is giving them a NEW commandment. “I give you a NEW commandment,” Jesus says, “that you love one another.”
On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything new about this commandment at all. In fact, the commandment to love is one of the oldest commandments there is! It is found all the way back in the book of Deuteronomy, where God says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” It is found all the way back in the book of Leviticus, where God says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Love of God and love of neighbor both are among the oldest commandments God has given us. So why does Jesus call his commandment to love a “new” commandment?
Jesus’ commandment is new in two ways. The love Jesus’ followers are to have for one another has both a new shape and a new source. This is evident from what Jesus says next: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” These words make this commandment new! This commandment to love, as old as it is, is given a new shape and a new source.
What is the shape of the love we are called to have for one another? It is to have the shape of Jesus. It is to have the shape of his love for us. It is to have the shape of the cross. Jesus uses a specific word for love here. That word is agape. Agape love is more than a sentiment. It is more than an emotion or a feeling. It is not based on attraction or compatibility. The agape love Jesus speaks of is not a noun; it is a verb. It is embodied in acts of service. It is lived out in acts of sacrifice. It is a love that is steadfast, bearing with others even when it is hard.
Jesus powerfully illustrated the shape of this love just before giving this new commandment as he knelt down to wash the feet of his disciples. Jesus had a status and an authority over them as their teacher and their Lord – not to mention his status as the very Son of God and the King of all Creation! – and he set all that aside in order to serve them. He sacrificed his status in order to tenderly wash their dirtiest parts. He loved his disciples with a steadfast love, fully knowing that one of them would betray him, another would deny him, and eventually all of them would abandon him. This is what makes this commandment new – the shape of the love we are to have for one another.
I saw a touching video on social media recently of an interview with Jay Leno, the comedian and former host of the Tonight Show. His wife of over 45 years has advanced dementia. Leno spoke of how he now spends most of his time as her caregiver. He feeds her. He dresses her. He helps her bathe. He helps her go to the toilet. Here is a man of great status. Here is someone who is famous and wealthy and could easily hire those difficult tasks out to others – but he insists on doing it himself. You could see the sadness in his eyes and the sorrow in his voice as he spoke, but he said he actually enjoys doing it. He enjoys it, he says, because he loves her. “And that’s what you do,” he said. It was so moving to hear him embrace those tasks in love for his dear wife. It reminded me of some people I know here at church.
I don’t know if Jay Leno is a Christian. He has spoken about how his faith has helped him through hard times, but he has not publicly shared any religious affiliation. Even so, this is someone who understands the new shape of love taught by Jesus. This is someone who understands agape love. He is practicing it.
Christian community is to be marked above all else by this kind of love, a love that is rooted in humble service, a love that is shaped like Jesus. As St. Paul says in First Corinthians, “If I have prophetic powers and all knowledge and faith to move mountains, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. If I give away all my possessions so that I may boast, but do not have love, I am nothing.” This passage is often associated with weddings, but Paul is actually writing about the church here! He’s saying that if a congregation has the best programs and the best music and the biggest budget, but does not have love, it is nothing more than noise in God’s ears. Who cares if the choir sounds good if they aren’t loving each other and praying for each other? (Which I’m proud to say they do here!) Paul is saying that if a church has the best theology and the best social ministry efforts and the best church building, but does not have love, it is nothing. Who cares if the sanctuary is beautiful if the people inside it are ugly towards one another? There are many things that are important in the life of a congregation, but what we have to offer the world more than anything else is this new Jesus-shaped love.
At a time when there is so much anger and vitriol and division in our culture, we can show the world a community where people are loved regardless of their differences in age or education level or income level or race or political party. When there are differences of opinion about complex political questions, we can show the world a love that is patient and kind and humble. We can show the world that we can disagree about certain things without hating one another, or accusing one another of being “haters.”
At a time when love is often seen as a commodity, as something you find in order to benefit yourself, we can show the world a love that humbly serves others.
At a time when love is seen as something sentimental, we can show the world a love that is sacrificial.
At a time when love is seen as an amorphous, abstract idea, we can show the world a love that is shaped by Jesus’ obedience to the will of the Father.
At a time when love is often understood as transactional: “I’ll love you as long as you perform as I expect, as long as you are meeting my needs, as long as you make me feel a certain way,” we can show the world a love that is steadfast, a love that bears with others through thick and thin.
We will never do this perfectly, of course. Anyone who has been around the church for awhile knows that! But we are called to strive to live out this Jesus-shaped love here in church. This is where we practice it, so that we can then take that Jesus-shaped love into our homes, into our families, into our community, into our world. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,” Jesus says, “if you have love for one another.”
If we were left on our own to live out this new commandment, we would never even begin to have this kind of love for one another. But this commandment doesn’t just have a new shape, it also has a new source. We are not only called to live OUT the love of Jesus, we are called to live IN the love of Jesus! “AS I HAVE LOVED YOU,” Jesus says, “you also should love one another.” Do you see what this means? Jesus’ love for us comes first! Jesus’ love for us isn’t just the shape of the love we are to have for each other, it is also the source of that love!
Just as the Lord Jesus stooped down and washed the feet of the very disciples he knew would betray and deny and abandon him, so too does he stoop down to serve us in love. He stoops down to wash the dirtiest parts of our lives clean with his forgiveness. The Almighty and Everlasting God stooped down and came into the world in order to be our savior. On the cross, Jesus took all our failures upon himself. On the cross Jesus took our lack of love for him and our lack of love for each other and absorbed it into his own body – and in his resurrection he has started the work of the new creation. He has started the work of making us new people. His love and grace and mercy come to us new every day, moving our hearts to begin to love one another as he has loved us.
The word “new” pops up a few times in our reading from Revelation for today as well. There we hear the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. It says that in this new heaven and new earth God’s home will be among mortals. He will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples. Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
Clearly that day is not here yet. But God has already begun to dwell among his people. He has come to us through his Son to show us the shape of his great love for us. He continues to come through the Spirit to be the source of that love in our lives, so that it would flow through us into the lives of others.
In following Jesus’ new commandment, we give the world a glimpse of this new heaven and new earth. We give the world a sneak preview of what God has in store when he comes at last to make all things new.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 30, 2025 | Sermons
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Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2025
John 20:19-31
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord Jesus Christ.
When we think of peace, often the first thing that comes to mind is global politics. We think of peace primarily as the absence of war, the cessation of hostilities, the laying down of arms, the end of fighting. We rightfully pray for peace between and within nations.
If we don’t think of peace in political terms, we often think of it instead in psychological terms. Peace is thought of as a feeling, as a sense of calmness or tranquility or relaxation which one might attain through a variety of means – some better than others.
These aren’t wrong definitions. “Peace” is a multifaceted word. It means lots of different things depending on context.
“Peace” was the first word Jesus spoke to his disciples after his resurrection. On the evening of the first Easter, Jesus appeared to them. “Peace be with you,” he said to them. He came back the next Sunday too, a week later, just as we are meeting a week after Easter here today, and again, his first words were, “Peace be with you.” What did Jesus mean? What exactly is this peace?
The Hebrew word is shalom, and it is just as multifaceted as the English word peace. It can be a casual greeting. If you go to Israel today, or to any Jewish community anywhere in the world, you will hear Jewish people greeting each other with the words shalom aleichem, which means, “peace be upon you.” The common response is aleichem shalom, which means, “upon you, peace.” It can be as simple and common as people saying, “Good morning,” or “Have a nice day.”
But the context in which Jesus uses this greeting is fraught with much, much deeper significance. When the risen Lord Jesus said, “Peace be with you,” to his disciples after his resurrection, this was much more than a casual greeting. You see, the word shalom, or peace, can also mean restoration. It can refer to a reordering of things, or a repair. It can refer to a realignment, to a restored relationship.
Pastor Dan Erlander of blessed memory once shared a story from one of his trips to Israel. The car he rented had some engine trouble, so he pulled into a mechanic. The mechanic got under the hood and started making adjustments. He swapped out a spark plug and tweaked the carburetor. When the engine started humming smoothly, he looked up at the pastor from under the hood, smiled, and said, “ah, shalom!” Here the word was used to describe restoration. Everything was right again. Everything was rightly ordered. Everything was aligned, restored to right relationship.
When Jesus greeted the disciples with the words, “Peace be with you,” he wasn’t just saying hello. This was not merely a greeting; it was a proclamation! Jesus was assuring them that they were in right relationship with him. His resurrection meant that everything had been fixed, everything had been restored. This peace meant peace with God, and with it came a new life.
This peace Jesus proclaimed gave them a life beyond their sin, beyond their failures. This is no small thing. The disciples had just failed Jesus in some profound ways. They all deserted Christ. While Peter denied Jesus publicly and repeatedly, they all denied him in their own way. They all either doubted or forgot his promises. Jesus had told them repeatedly that he would be arrested and crucified and then be raised on the third day, but when the third day came, even after the women told them the tomb was empty, they initially thought it was an idle tale. They weren’t watching for him to come out of the tomb. They were huddled together behind locked doors.
You wouldn’t blame Jesus one bit if, when he appeared to these disciples, his first words had been, “Really guys? Did you not listen to anything I said?” You wouldn’t blame Jesus if he scolded them a little bit, right?
But no. The first word Jesus had for these failed disciples was, “Peace be with you.” This is akin to saying, “All is well.” At its heart, these words are words of forgiveness. They are words of restoration. We know this from the fact that Jesus immediately goes on to tell them to go and do the same. He tasks them with going out into the world to forgive sins in his name.
This is what the resurrection has accomplished. It has brought about the forgiveness of sin. It has restored sinners to a right relationship with God, beginning with the disciples and continuing to this very day as his word of forgiveness is announced to us. The peace Jesus proclaims is peace with God. It means our relationship with God has been reordered, it has been aligned through Christ’s saving death on the cross, it has been ratified by his resurrection, and now we are forgiven. Our relationship with God has been restored forever. It hums along now, fueled and well-lubricated by the grace and mercy of the risen Lord.
This peace Jesus proclaimed, this peace with God, gave them a life beyond their fear. The book of Acts is full of stories of how the disciples were transformed by the resurrection, how they were emboldened by the peace of Christ. They came out from behind those locked doors and became bold preachers and witnesses to the resurrection. Instead of hiding away behind closed doors for the rest of their lives, they went out into the world to share the Good News of the gospel, even when it meant being ostracized or persecuted or even killed, which it ultimately did for most of them. Even when their lives, their circumstances, were anything but peaceful, they had peace with God, and that was what mattered most.
This peace Jesus proclaimed, this peace with God, gave them a life beyond their doubts too. This gospel reading is often referred to as the story of “Doubting Thomas,” which is unfair to both Thomas and to John, the gospel writer, who is trying to make the exact opposite point. It is true that Jesus is exceptionally patient with Thomas. From this we can be assured that Jesus is patient with people’s struggles to believe and to understand. We, too, should be patient with people’s doubts. We should make room for their questions and respond to them with grace. But we’ve almost made a virtue out of doubt in our time, and we shouldn’t. In the Large Catechism, Luther describes doubt as a close cousin to despair. Jesus didn’t want to leave Thomas in that confusion that leads to despair. Jesus didn’t leave Thomas in his doubts. He moved Thomas from doubt to faith. Jesus wanted Thomas to know the peace that comes from believing that he had truly risen from the dead. And so Jesus came back the following week, just for Thomas. He came to him specifically, and said, “Peace be with you.” He invited Thomas to touch him, to put his finger in his wounds. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas said. The story John is telling us is not about a Doubting Thomas, but a Confessing Thomas, a believing Thomas – a Thomas who was moved from doubt to faith in the risen Christ.
“Have you believed because you have seen me?” Jesus continued. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus is talking about us! Now he is talking about you! At this point John, too, tells us that he has written all these things so that you, the reader, you, the hearer, you, the person listening to this right now, may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. You see, through the resurrection of Jesus, you too have a new life!
We are right to be concerned about global politics. We are right to pray for and work for peace in our world. But even when earthly peace is lacking, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a peace the world can never give us.
It is understandable to desire and look for inner peace. It is wise to look for healthy ways to ease anxiety. But even when our inner peace is disturbed by circumstances beyond our control, even when we are restless, unable to relax, even when we can’t stop the rush of cortisol flooding through our veins because we are worried or stressed, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This peace is more than a feeling. This peace is not so much a state of mind as it is a state of being. It is an assurance. It is a strength that comes from being centered in his promises. It is a peace which passes all understanding.
Through our risen Lord, God has ultimately fixed everything that was spiritually broken so that our lives would begin to hum with Easter hope and joy. Through his death and resurrection, we have peace with God, which he bestows upon you anew today through the power of his living Word.
Peace be with you. Do not doubt, and do not despair. Believe! Put your trust in the Christ Jesus, who is risen from the dead, and you will have life in his name.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
