by Jeffrey Spencer | May 21, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for May 19
Sermon for Pentecost Sunday – May 19, 2024
Acts 2:1-21, John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
Kjære venner nåde med dere og fred fra Gud vår Far og vår herre Jesus Kristus.
Og det skal skje i de siste dager, sier Gud, da vil jeg utgyde av min Ånd over alt kjød, og eders sønner og eders døtre skal tale profetiske ord, og eders unge menn skal se syner, og eders oldinger ha drømmer; ja, endog over mine træler og over mine trælkvinner vil jeg i hine dager utgyde av min Ånd, og de skal tale profetiske ord. Og jeg vil la under skje på himmelen i det høie, og tegn på jorden i det lave: blod og ild og røkskyer; solen skal bli til mørke og månen til blod, før Herrens dag kommer, den store og herlige. Og det skal skje: Hver den som påkaller Herrens navn, han skal bli frelst. Amen.
Just kidding. I’ll give it to you in English. But as I switch from badly pronounced Norwegian to English, I want you to notice something. As I speak now in what is the native language of most if not all of you, there is a sudden clarity, isn’t there? It is like a fog has lifted. It is like something that was blurry has come into sharp focus. Now the words are landing in your ears and sticking, instead of bouncing off in confusion.
For Christians, Pentecost is a celebration of the Holy Spirit, of course, but more specifically, it is a celebration of the Holy Spirit’s purpose, which is to speak to us in our native language. Today we celebrate the Holy Spirit’s job, which is to preach to us in language we can understand.
Pentecost was a Jewish celebration long before it was a Christian one. In Hebrew it was (and is) called Shavuot, and is held fifty days after Passover. It commemorates the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is also something of a first fruits festival, celebrating the wheat harvest, not unlike our celebration of Thanksgiving. Citizens of Israel will get June 12 off this year as a paid holiday to celebrate Shavuot.
Way back in the first century there were many Jews who had moved out of Israel and now lived in far-flung places. These diaspora Jews returned to Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost. Many of these Jews had been born and raised speaking the languages native to the places they now lived. They might know a little Greek, which was the language of business in the Mediterranean. They might have retained a little bit of Hebrew or Aramaic, probably just a few words here or there they heard from their grandparents. But mostly they spoke the languages of the lands where they now lived. These were the languages they knew best.
As the disciples were celebrating Pentecost, there was a sound like the rush of a violent wind. As the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in other languages. It is important to note that this was not some esoteric spiritual language. These were real, well-established human languages. Empowered by the Spirit, the disciples began to speak in the languages of the diaspora Jews, the now native languages of the Jews from all of these far-flung places. Amazed and astonished, the crowd said, “How can this be? Aren’t these guys 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. But Peter stood up and said, “No, no. We aren’t drunk. It is only nine in the morning, for cryin’ out loud. No, this is what the prophet Joel said would happen. The Spirit is 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 what Jesus said would happen. In our gospel reading we hear Jesus promising the disciples that he would send the Spirit. Jesus makes it very clear what the Spirit would do. This Spirit would be an Advocate, or Helper. Jesus describes this Spirit as the Spirit of truth who would guide his people into all the truth. And this Spirit, Jesus says, would accomplish its job by speaking! Look at all the verbs attributed to the Spirit in our gospel reading: The Spirit would testify. The Spirit would speak. The Spirit would declare. The Spirit would preach law and gospel, both convicting of sin and taking Christ’s forgiveness and declaring it to the hearer. The Spirit would glorify Jesus – and would do so by speaking.
What happened on that Pentecost was a spectacular announcement that this promise was now being fulfilled. What happened was that the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus had come, filling the disciples with the words they needed to deliver the goods of the gospel to their neighbors. The violent wind and the tongues of fire were a sign that the church was now born, and its mission, its purpose, its job, was to be the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming God’s deeds of power through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ to all the world.
There is a bad habit in some corners of Christianity of separating the Holy Spirit from Jesus – who sends it, and sends it for this specific purpose. There is a bad habit among some Christians of unhitching the Spirit from its source in Christ and his Word. When this happens, a spiritual train wreck inevitably follows. When it happens, people go off the rails.
There are far-left Christians claiming that the Spirit is leading them to invent new truths, new truths which conveniently conform to the spirit of the age. There are far-right Christians in the so-called “prophetic utterance movement” who claim the Spirit has given them a revelation about who the next president should be. This untethering of the Spirit from Christ and his Word is at best a distraction from the Spirit’s actual work, and at worst actually leads people away from the gospel, destroying souls. This is all from a spirit, alright – but it isn’t the Holy Spirit!
Though the circumstances were different, Martin Luther dealt with this in his own time from a group of people he called the Enthusiasts. These were people who claimed divine revelation from the Spirit apart from the Word. Not one to mince words, Luther said such pious-sounding delusions were from the devil himself.
Jesus is clear about what the Spirit will do. His Spirit is the Spirit of truth, who guides us into all the truth. The Holy Spirit will never lead us away from the truth of scripture. The Holy Spirit will never lead us away from Christ and his Word. The Holy Spirit’s job is to take what is Christ’s and declare it to us. It is to speak words of law and gospel to us, words that convict and set free, words which declare God’s deeds of power for us through the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit’s job is ultimately to lead us to the truth of what Jesus has done for us to give us forgiveness, life, and salvation. And the Spirit does this in a simple, yet miraculous way: by speaking to us in our own native language, in the language we understand best.
In my previous congregation one of the members was from Germany. An American exchange student from Lewis County, Washington, lived with his family for a year, and he followed her back and married her. He spoke excellent English, but German, of course, was his native language. This was the language his mother used to sing to him. This was the language his father used to teach him to pray. One Pentecost Sunday I decided to surprise him. I practiced and practiced, and when I came to serve him communion, I said to him, “Die leib Christi, given für dich.” He looked up at me with astonishment. It hit him differently in his native tongue! After the service, he kept thanking me over and over. It meant more to him than I ever imagined it would. He heard Christ speaking to him in the language he knew best.
This is the miracle of Pentecost, and it continues to this day. God wants us to hear what he has done for us through his Son, and so, by the Spirit’s power, God speaks to us in our native language. You do not need to learn Aramaic or Hebrew or Greek to hear the gospel. The Spirit continues to work through the church to deliver the goods in the language you understand best.
For those whose native tongue is something other than English, there are congregations right here on Whidbey Island where other languages are spoken. We have been a sponsoring congregation of El Camino de Emaus, the Spanish speaking Lutheran congregation in the Skagit Valley, so that these friends can hear the gospel in the language they understand best. The Spirit is still at work through tongues, through language, through speaking, to declare God’s deeds of power to all people, so that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord would be saved.
I began by reading part of Peter’s Pentecost sermon from Acts in Norwegian, but today, in God’s great love for you, he speaks to you in the language you know best, in words that are clear. Today the Spirit speaks to you in such a way that the fog lifts and God’s saving word for you comes into sharp focus. Today the Spirit takes what is Christ’s and declares it to you. By his grace, you have his righteousness, his holiness, his relationship with God the Father, his new and eternal life. Through Jesus, you have forgiveness, life, and salvation. It is all yours through faith in him.
Today the Spirit speaks to you in such a way that the good news of what God has done for you in Jesus Christ would land in your ears and in your heart, so that you too would look up in astonishment.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | May 15, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for May 12
Sermon for the Ascension of our Lord (and Mother’s Day) – May 12, 2024
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 Lord Jesus Christ.
Like many of you, I’m remembering and celebrating the mothers in my life today. I’m remembering my grandmother, who sang in the choir in the congregation I grew up in. After singing she would come back to the pew and pull me into her lap and wrap her arms around me, her hands resting on my torso. Being in church with her hands holding me to herself was such a blessing. In the midst of an often-chaotic childhood, it felt like the safest place in the world. I remember my mother’s hands too. When she died, I had to work through some anger and some painful memories, but at one point my counselor pushed me to start naming the good things I remember about her. And the first thing that popped out of my mouth was the feeling of her hands on my forehead when I was sick as a kid. Nothing made me feel better than her hands on my forehead. I look at my dear wife, the mother of our three sons, and I remember how her hands could calm them down when they were little. My hands would get them riled up with wrestling and roughhousing until, without fail, one of them was crying, and then her hands would almost instantly dry their tears. I notice now how when we leave them behind after visiting them in college, her hands reach up to hold the back of their necks as she lingers in a proud, loving hug. She is blessing them, and no matter how big they get, it just melts their hearts. Even as other women are now starting to enter the picture, there is still no greater blessing than a touch from their mother’s hands.
I don’t think it is a stretch at all to find a connection in the loving, comforting, blessing hands of mothers and the Ascension of our Lord. As St. Luke tells us, after the risen Jesus had spent forty days on the earth with his disciples, he gave them some final words. He opened their minds to understand the scriptures, helping them see it all through a new lens, the lens of his death and resurrection. He gave them their mission, which was to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in his name and to be witnesses to all that he had done. Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
You might think this is a minor detail, but it isn’t. Those hands mean something. This was the very same posture the priests in the temple used to put God’s blessing on the people at the end of worship. It was the posture used to put God’s mercy, God’s love, God’s blessing on them. Jesus used this very same posture. He lifted up his hands in blessing. His hands, still bearing the wounds of his great sacrifice for them, were over them, covering them, assuring them, blessing them.
These hands of blessing are what made Jesus’ departure an occasion of great joy rather than a sad goodbye. These disciples knew that these hands would remain over them, and so they could go back to their daily lives in great joy. They could go back to Jerusalem, where so much ugliness had happened, without fear. They could spend the rest of their lives worshipping Jesus and serving him. They could spend the rest of their lives blessing God for the blessing that was upon them through those eternally outstretched hands.
And where is Jesus now? Where did he go, exactly? As St. Paul says in our epistle reading, and as we confess in the creed, Jesus is “seated at the right hand of the Father.” The Ascension of our Lord doesn’t mean Jesus shot off into outer space! No, he took his place at God’s right hand in the heavenly places.
This is symbolic language. The right hand represents power. There’s nothing wrong with being left-handed, of course, but about 90% of the human population is right-hand dominant. For most of the human population, then, the right hand is their strongest hand. It is the hand you use to get things done. The right hand is the hand you use to sign your name or crank a wrench or flip a pancake. The right hand is the hand you use to accomplish things. And so, in ancient times the right-hand symbolized power and strength. This symbolism carried over to the seating arrangements in the courts of kings. The highest-ranking official would always be seated to the king’s right as a sign of his power. This communicated to everyone that this was the person the king used to accomplish things. We use the phrase “right hand man” even today.
Jesus’ ascension is his enthronement as the eternal “right hand man” to God the Father. Jesus is taking his place as the one who has the ear of the Heavenly Father, who acts with his authority, who carries out his will. Jesus, as the “right hand man” to God the Father, is the one who will continue to get things done. He will continue to be at work. He will continue to accomplish things. That’s what the right-hand man does, right?
As God’s right-hand man, Jesus continues get things done for God the Father. He continues to lift his hands over us to comfort and to heal and to strengthen and to bless. And he does this through the church, which is our spiritual mother.
There is a long history in Christianity of describing the church as our mother. St. Cyprian, a 3rd century bishop from North Africa famously wrote: “No one can have God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother.” That can be jarring for American Protestants steeped in “just me and Jesus” spirituality to hear, but it is not a foreign concept for Lutheran Christians. Martin Luther himself, in no less important a writing than the Large Catechism, calls the church, “the mother that conceives and bears every Christian through God’s Word.”
The church is our mother, and it is through the church that the hands of Jesus continue to be lifted in blessing over us. It is through our spiritual mother, the church, that Jesus continues to get things done for God, often through the literal laying on or lifting up of hands.
I remember receiving the laying on of hands when I was ordained as a pastor. I remember the blessing being put on me through those many hands laid upon me in prayer. I remember returning the favor when Lynne Ogren was ordained here, laying hands on her in prayer. Christ’s blessing is laid upon pastors through the loving, blessing hands of our mother, the church. In the scriptures we read how when Timothy was struggling in ministry, St. Paul encouraged him to remember those hands laid upon him when he was ordained, and to take courage from it, to literally be en-couraged, to be strengthened by the hands of his mother, the church. Those hands are powerful! Christ continues to get things done for God through them!
But it isn’t just for pastors. The newly baptized have hands laid upon them after they emerge from the womb of the baptismal font. Through the laying on of hands and prayer, Christ’s blessing is put upon them as mother church embraces her newborn child.
Next Sunday I will lay hands on the heads of our confirmation students as they publicly affirm their baptism. The hands of the ascended Christ will be lifted over them in blessing. They will literally feel the proud, loving blessing of Christ on their heads through the ministry of their mother, the church.
Every Christian who attends worship has Christ’s hands lifted over them when the absolution, the forgiveness of sins is Christ’s name, is spoken, and again when the benediction is proclaimed. Jesus borrows my hands to do it – but make no mistake: he is only using mine to remind you of his! His hands are lifted over you in blessing as his word is spoken. Through your mother, the church, he is putting his grace, his love, his blessing, on you. In the midst of all the chaos of the world and the chaos of your life, he is putting his hands over and around you, so that you would be held in his safe-keeping.
When we are sick, or hurting, or afraid, our mother, the church, is there with hands that bring comfort and peace. On some occasions hands are literally placed on foreheads as words of blessing are spoken.
Mothers don’t need to be perfect to be powerful conveyors of love and blessing. The same is true of Mother Church. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the church has likely had times when it has led to disappointment or pain. But even so, flawed as she is, the church is the mother through whom Christ’s hands are upon us. Through her, our ascended Lord continues to comfort and heal. He continues to encourage and assure. He continues to love and bless.
The hands of your ascended Lord continue to be lifted over you today. The ascension is not a sad goodbye, it is a reason to worship him with great joy! It doesn’t mean Jesus has left us, it means he has taken his place at God’s right hand, where he continues to bestow his blessing. Through your spiritual mother the church he holds you close, so that you would know the power of his great love for you, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | May 7, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for May 5
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 5, 2024
John 15:9-17
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
As we come close to the end of the Easter season, we hit the rewind button. With our gospel reading for today we rewind things back to the time Jesus shared with his disciples before his death and resurrection. We rewind things back to the Upper Room, to the night in which Jesus disclosed to his disciples all that was to come. This was the night in which he stooped down and washed their feet, the night in which he instituted the Lord’s Supper, the night in which he was betrayed. This morning we are rewinding back to take another look at what many of you recognize as what we commemorate on Maundy Thursday during Holy Week.
On that fateful night, Jesus said some remarkable things! Jesus told his disciples he loved them: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” He told them he loved them with the highest form of love there is, a love in which one lays down their life for the sake of the beloved. Jesus also promised them joy: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” Jesus told his disciples that they were his friends. “I no longer call you servants…but I have called you friends.” Jesus assured them that he had chosen them. In spite of their bickering, in spite of their power struggles with one another, in spite of their sin, their foolishness and failures, in spite of their upcoming denials and doubts, Jesus had chosen them. “You did not choose me,” Jesus told them, “but I chose you.”
On that holy night with his disciples there was one pledge of love after another! There was one love-soaked promised after another! And then Jesus told his beloved disciples, his dear friends, to abide in this love. They were to remain in it. They were to hang on to it. They were to center their lives in it.
And it is through abiding in this love that wonderful things would start to happen. They would willingly begin to keep his commandments. Their hearts would be changed by his love such that they would want to live in obedience to him. There would be no begrudging on their side or coercion on his. The love of Jesus would compel their willing obedience to his commandments.
As John says in our epistle reading, when someone loves God, his commandments are not burdensome. It is like the vows a husband and wife make to each other. When their love is strong, those vows are not a burden. They are not done begrudgingly or enforced coercively. A healthy relationship steeped in love sees the vows as a delight. They are willingly kept. This is what God’s love will make possible, Jesus says. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Obedience and abiding in love are inextricably connected to one another.
For you language geeks out there, the verbs in this passage are all in the indicative mood. They are describing something inevitable. Jesus is not saying, “I’ll love you if you do this,” or “I’ll be your friend if you do this.” He is telling his disciples that when they abide in his love, this is what will happen. They will begin to keep his commandments.
And these commandments have their highest fulfillment in the way the disciples will love one another. “This is my commandment,” Jesus says, “that you love one another.” And then later, he says again: “I am giving you these commandments so that you may love one another.”
Jesus tells them that abiding in his love will result in fruit, fruit that will last! This is to say, good things will grow out of it. Jesus will grow in them the fruits of faith, and love, and peace, and joy, and these fruits will last. They will last into eternity.
Well, now let’s fast forward. Let’s fast forward all the way past the resurrection, past the book of Acts, where we see all this playing out. Let’s fast forward all the way to today. Today we hear these words of Jesus from so long ago in the Upper Room – and in the hearing, Jesus now speaks them to us! We believe the scriptures are more than just a record of something Jesus said a long time ago. It is God’s living word to us today. In the hearing of his Word, God speaks them anew to us!
And the first thing for us to hear this morning is the love that our Lord Jesus has for us! “As the Father has loved me,” Jesus says to us, “so I have loved you.” Having given his life for us on the cross, Jesus loves us with the highest form of love there is!
Jesus promises us joy: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” Joy is not to be confused with happiness, which is circumstantial. Joy is so much deeper. True joy is what happens when the love of God enters into our lives in such a way that everything else, both good and bad, pales in comparison. True joy is the sense of being centered and secure in God’s eternal love, no matter what our current circumstances might be.
Jesus tells us that we are his friends. “I no longer call you servants,” Jesus says, “but I have called you friends.”
Jesus tells us he has chosen us. “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” Jesus says to us. We like to believe that we call the shots in our lives, that we are the ones making the decisions, but when it comes to Jesus, it is utterly clear: “You did not choose me. I chose you.” And he really means you, you know. The Lord Jesus, in the speaking of his Word here and now, has chosen you. In spite of every mistake you have ever made, in spite of every act of foolishness, in spite of every failure, he has chosen you. And he has chosen you not merely to be his servant, but to be his friend.
As we hear all these pledges of love from Jesus, all these love-soaked promises, we too are invited to abide in this love. We are called to remain in it, to cling to it, to center our lives on it. And it is through abiding in the love of Jesus that wonderful things start to happen. We see these wonderful things happening in our congregation. We see them happening in each other.
We see them as lives are gradually changed from resenting God’s commandments to embracing them, from only ever being accused by them to seeing them as no longer burdensome, as John says. As we abide in Christ’s love, the commandments become something we freely strive to keep out of gratitude and love.
And the commandments have their highest fulfillment in the way we love one another. As we abide in the love of Jesus, we start to love each other in the same way he loves us. We become a fellowship of self-giving love. We become friends in Christ who serve one another – not because it is our duty as servants, but because we come to delight in it as friends in Christ.
This love for each other goes a long way in bringing us joy, even in the midst of hardship, even in the midst of sorrow. I see it in the way the members of this congregation take care of each other, especially when there is an urgent need. I see it in the way you weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. I see it in the way you find and accompany and support one another in difficult times. I see it in your generosity towards one another. I see God’s love embodied in the things you do for each other and the joy it brings, in spite of difficult circumstances.
The year my mother died a woman in our congregation came back from a trip to Norway with a gift for me. It was a Norwegian sweater. I’m Norwegian on my mom’s side – and she knows that – and so the gift really touched me. Another part of the backstory is that this woman lost her own son several years ago. So here was a mother who lost her son giving this gift to a son who lost his mother. She handed me the bag, I peeked inside, we smiled at each other, sharing an unspoken moment. It took me a couple of tries to say thank you, because I was all choked up.
For me, it wasn’t just the generosity, it wasn’t just the thoughtfulness, though I was deeply moved by both. It felt more like God filling an absence in our hearts through the love of Christian friends. It felt more like a joy born of fellowship that somehow transcended our sorrows.
The point of this little story is not that you should buy presents for your pastor whenever you travel. The point is that God does wondrous things in and among those who abide in his love. The point is that Jesus gives us his love through each other so that his joy may be in us, and so that our joy may be complete. I know you have stories of your own about how you have received God’s love through friends in Christ. I know you have stories of joy reaching you in the midst of sorrow. That’s what happens! This is what Christian community is all about. When we abide in the love of Jesus, that love bears fruit, fruit that lasts!
Is there bickering in the church? Oh yes. Are there power struggles? Um, yeah! How much time do you have? Do we fail to love Christ and one another at times? Yes we do, and I am as guilty as anyone else. But just as Jesus chose the bickering, betraying, denying, doubting, and stumbling disciples, so too has he chosen us – not because we are worthy, but because we are loved. “Just as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you,” Jesus says.
Abide in his love. Rest in it. Cling to it. Center your life in it. And then watch for the wonderful things that are sure to come.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 30, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 28
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter – April 28, 2024
John 15:1-8
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to admit up front that I am not much of a gardener. We’ve had some decent gardens over the years, but all the credit for that goes to my wife. I do the unskilled labor and she does the rest. I do, however, understand the basics of gardening. I understand that it involves both subtraction and addition. It involves both pruning and feeding. Whether you’re growing roses or tomatoes or grapes, in order to get the best results, you need to both take some things out of the picture and introduce other things. Some things need to be cut out or removed, while other things need to be added or bestowed or given.
On the route I take for my morning run there’s a house where just about every year a guy grows a giant pumpkin in his side yard. I’ve run this same route for years now, and I’ve seen how he does things. Once a particularly promising pumpkin takes shape, he pinches off all the other branches. They are dead ends. Any new flowers or new buds get pinched off. They will only hinder the growth of the pumpkin he is trying to grow. He prunes the vine so that all the nutrients can go to the pumpkin, helping it grow. He is also diligent about pulling out any weeds growing nearby. They will only sap nutrients from the soil, taking them away from the pumpkin. He makes sure nothing is growing nearby which blocks the sunlight, cutting back anything that might impede that wondrous process of photosynthesis.
He not only prunes, he also feeds. He makes sure the pumpkin gets what it needs to grow – not only sunlight, but water and food. I see him out there some mornings with his hose. He enriches the soil with plant food and fertilizer to get that good nitrogen and potassium into the ground. This nourishment comes through the vine, which delivers the goods to the pumpkin, making it grow.
This morning we hear another one of the great “I AM” statements of Jesus. Last Sunday we heard Jesus say, “I AM the good shepherd.” Today we hear him say, “I AM the vine.” Jesus goes on to say that we are the branches and his Father is the vine grower, or the gardener. As Jesus unpacks this word picture, he describes for us how he and God the Father are at work in our lives.
God the Father is glorified by the fruit he grows in us. This is first and foremost the fruit of faith, faith in his Son. This faith, however, goes on to blossom into the fruits St. Paul describes as the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians, which include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control. These are some of the fruits God loves to grow in us. And this happens through both subtraction and addition.
God the Father goes to work on us through the Word pinch off those buds that prevent us from bearing fruit, those offshoots that only lead us away from him. Our gardener God speaks a Word of law, a word of command, a word that convicts us, in order to pinch off our false gods, our misplaced trust, our dead-end hopes.
“Oh, you think your accomplishments in life are what saves you? Nope, that’s my job.” Pinch. “Oh, you think THAT is what is going to give you peace and joy in life? Nope. You will only find it in me.” Pinch. “Oh, you think the next election is what is going to decide the fate of the world? Nope, again, that’s me.” Pinch. God pinches off anything that threatens to become more important to us than him, any offshoot that begins to draw precious resources away from what is most important, which is faith in him.
Our gardener God also uses his Word to prune away our sinful desires, our sinful attitudes, our sinful behaviors. There is no place for them in his vineyard, and so he cuts them away. This is not a once-and-done thing, but an ongoing process – just like it is in any garden. The author of Hebrews tells us God’s Word is a two-edged sword. We could also call this Word a set of sharp pruning shears. God uses these pruning shears to shape us into fruitful branches that give him glory, training us in righteousness and holiness, coaxing out of us those fruits of faith. Because weeds are plentiful and aggressive, because they grow so easily in our hearts, because they sap energy away from the bearing of good fruit, there is a constant need for the ongoing work of subtraction, of snipping them away, cutting them out of our lives. God does this work through the two-bladed garden shears of his Word.
But our gardener God doesn’t just snip and pinch. Our gardener God also nourishes. Our gardener God bestows good things upon us to make sure we have what we need for us branches to bear good fruit. And God delivers the goods through his Son, who is the Vine. Through the conduit of this Vine that is Christ our gardener God waters us and feeds us.
In Holy Baptism we are first grafted into the Vine through a water of rebirth. “You have already been cleansed by the word I have spoken to you,” Jesus told his disciples. In Holy Baptism Jesus speaks his cleansing word to us. As we return to the font, we are watered again and again through the life-giving promises we have been given: We are forgiven. We are loved. We are his, now and forever. What a refreshing Word to have splashed over us again and again!
In Holy Communion we are fed with the spiritual nutrients we need so that faith would grow in us. We literally take the fruit of the Vine into our bodies. We receive the bread that is Christ, who nourishes and strengthens us in his grace.
What is our role in all of this? Jesus tells us that the only thing for us to do is to abide in him. “Abide in me as I abide in you,” Jesus says. “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”
To abide is simply to “remain in.” To abide is to remain in Christ. It is to stay connected to the Vine. The Christian life is about communion with Christ, staying close to him, resting in him, letting him deliver the goods of his grace and love to you.
This is what John is getting at in our epistle reading for today when he writes: “God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
We abide in Jesus through prayer, through being in his Word, through showing up and participating in the life of his church, receiving what he has to give us. We abide in Jesus by staying connected to him, as he so faithfully stays connected to us. We abide in Jesus simply by being branches who are connected to the Vine, simply by letting God tend to us as our good and gracious gardener who goes to work on us through his Word, pruning and feeding, trimming here and bestowing there.
Jesus is the Vine, and you are the branches. Through Baptism and Holy Communion and his Word you have been connected to him. Apart from the Vine, we can do nothing. But as we abide in him who is our life-giving Vine, God continues to give us what we need in order to grow faith in us, faith that blossoms in the kinds of fruit that give him glory.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 30, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 21
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 21, 2024
John 10:11-18
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
There is a moment in the Passion reading on Good Friday where I always almost lose it.
If you were here for one of those services, maybe you noticed me struggling with emotion at a certain point, starting to get choked up. If you are in the choir and were here for both services, you may have noticed that it happened at both services at the very same verse. Even though I know it is coming and try to trick myself into not letting it get to me, every year it does.
It’s the verse where Pilate is interrogating Jesus. When Pilate gets frustrated because Jesus isn’t answering his questions anymore, he says, “Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” And Jesus, who now decides to reply, says, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.”
I can do it just fine now, but when I read it in the context of Good Friday, I can’t help by think about how this scene is depicted in the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” Jesus is so badly beaten he can barely stand up. He is trembling, unstable on his feet, swaying back and forth from weakness. He does not look at all powerful. And yet, there is incredible power in his words. His words make it clear that he has chosen this. Despite all appearances, he is in control. He knows exactly what he is doing. He is willingly laying down his life.
In our gospel reading for today Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd. This image is rich with meaning. We rightly associate it with the 23rd psalm, which is our appointed psalm for today. Jesus is the Good Shepherd David wrote about in this beloved psalm. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leads us to green pastures and still waters, restoring our souls. He is the Good Shepherd who is with us in the valley of the shadow of death. He leads us in right pathways. His rod and staff comfort us. He is the Good Shepherd who prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. He is the Good Shepherd who makes it possible for us to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This is all wonderful and true. Jesus does for us all the good things that good shepherds do for their sheep. But he does this in a specific and totally unexpected way. He does it by laying down his life for his sheep.
This is all over our gospel reading for today. Our reading begins with Jesus saying, “I am the good shepherd.” And then, in the very next verse, he describes what this good shepherd does. He describes what makes him good. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” Jesus says. And just to make sure we get the point, he goes on to mention his laying down his life for the sheep four more times. Altogether, Jesus mentions it five times in eight verses!
This goes far beyond regular shepherding. No shepherd in the ancient world, even a really good one, loved their sheep so much that they would lay down their lives for them! But this is precisely what Jesus did for his flock. Jesus laid down his life for his sheep. He did it willingly. He did it out of his great love. He did it to save us.
There was a story some time back about a father who was on a vacation in Florida with his wife and four daughters. His youngest daughter, a 16-year-old named Grace, was swimming in the ocean and got caught in a riptide – one of those currents that pulls you away from the shore. Two of his adult daughters noticed her first and went out to help, but they got caught in it too. The 53-year-old dad then went out for them. He managed to keep all three of his daughters’ heads above water while a family friend swam out with a rescue board.
Once the girls were safely clinging to the board, the father lost consciousness and slipped beneath the surface. He was pulled to shore by some bystanders. CPR was administered, but he did not survive. His last words to his daughters, while they were out there in the water, were, “I got you.” And he did have them. He saved them. He laid down his life for them. He spent every last ounce of strength and breath he had so that they would live.
In looking up this story on the internet to refresh my memory of some of the details, the keywords in my internet search brought up about ten other stories which were similar. It turns out a lot of dads have died saving their kids from riptides. And while these were all tragic accidents, while nobody wishes for these things to happen in the first place, I don’t think a single one of those dads would have regretted laying down their lives if that’s what it took to save their children.
We recognize this as the highest form of love.To lay down one’s life for another is the highest form of love. We often see it in the love both moms and dads have for their children. I’ve seen it between spouses as well. I’ve seen it when one spouse is fighting a terminal illness and the other tells me with utter sincerity, “I wish it were me instead.” They love their wife or husband so much that they wish they could take it all upon themselves. If it were possible, they would be willing to lay down their lives for them.
With Jesus, this is not only possible – it has happened. He took our death upon himself so that we would live. And he did it out of his great love for us.He loves us – he loves YOU – that much!
Jesus tells his disciples he has other sheep who do not belong to this fold. He tells them he must bring them also. Jesus is talking about the Gentiles here. He is talking about those who had been outside of the covenant. He has come to bring them in. He’s talking about us! He’s talking about you! His sheep, Jesus goes on to say, now include all those who listen to his voice.
As sheep, we often go astray. We often lose our way. As sheep we often find ourselves in danger. Sometimes this is because of our own stupidity and stubbornness. Other times it is because of the powerful currents all around us that are constantly trying to pull us away from God and into sin and death and despair.
But Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has come into our world and into our lives to rescue us. He has come to lay down his life for us in order to save us. He has the power to do this! Not only does he have the power to lay down his life for us, but he also has the power to take it up again! And because he is a crucified and RISEN Lord, we can still hear his voice. He continues to speak his word to us. He continues to shepherd us, to guide us. He continues to save us. His voice leads us to green pastures and still waters. His Word restores our souls. His voice leads us in paths of righteousness. His Word is our comfort when we’re in the valley of the shadow of death. His voice speaks to us of goodness and mercy which follow us all the days of our lives. His Word assures us that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. His sheep are those who listen to his voice and trust it.
I think what gets to me on Good Friday when reading that verse is that it reminds me that what happened to Jesus was not an accident. He knew what he was doing. Even as he was going to his death, he said to Pilate, “You would have no power over me were it not given from above.” In that moment, Jesus tips his cards. He shows that he is not someone who has been randomly swept up by events beyond his control. He knows exactly what he is doing. Jesus was willingly laying down his life for his sheep. He was willingly laying down his life for us, for you, for me. He loves us that much!
There are many pretenders out there who want to be our shepherds. There are those who are only interested in us for what we can do for them, how we can line their pockets or advance their agendas. “Hired hands,” Jesus called them. There are many voices out there trying to lure us one direction or another.
But when the wolves are at the door, there is only one truly Good Shepherd. There is only one who can save us. There is only one who has the power to lay down his life for us and then take it up again, rescuing us from sin and death.
Listen to the voice of your Good Shepherd today. Listen to the One who loves you so much that he willingly laid down his life for you. Listen to the One who is with you in the valley and at the table. Listen to the One who has come to rescue you. Listen to the One meets you in the water and says, “I got you.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev, Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 9, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 7
Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter – April 7, 2024
John 20:19-31
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord Jesus Christ.
What do you think of when you think of “peace?”
For many people, the first thing that comes to mind is global politics. We long for peace in Ukraine. We long for peace in the Middle East. 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, in this framework, is similar to tranquility or calmness. Peace is what The Eagles sang about in their 1972 hit, “Peaceful, Easy Feeling.” It is a feeling. It includes a quiet mind and a relaxed body. It is how someone might feel while soaking in a hot tub, or when they are deep into their second glass of wine.
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 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, “Hey guys, what’s up?” This was not merely a greeting; it was a proclamation. Jesus was assuring them that they were in right relationship with him. Jesus was telling them that everything was now right again. His resurrection meant that everything had been fixed, everything had been restored. With these words, “Peace be with you,” Jesus wasn’t just saying “Good evening, bros!” He was giving them 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 they had seen the risen Lord, they weren’t anticipating anything he had promised. 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 balled them out a little bit, right?
But no. The first word Jesus had for these failed disciples is, “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. This is what peace means. 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 also 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 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 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. 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.
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 Thomas who was moved from doubts 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! And at this point John 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! Even as global wars rage and countless hostilities on scales large and small continue, Christ has brought a peace into our world, and into our lives, through his resurrection. This peace is more than a feeling. Feelings come and go. 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. His peace is a peace the world cannot give us. It is a peace which passes all understanding.
Jesus Christ has made peace between us and God. Our relationship with God has been realigned, re-ordered, and eternally restored. Your sin is forgiven, and so you can stop hiding from God. Christ has conquered sin and death, and so you don’t need to be afraid of anything anymore. These things have been written down so that you would not doubt, but believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and your God, and that through believing, you would have life in his name.
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. Christ has been raised, and he bestows his peace upon you today through his living Word. As you receive it, you are given a new life. As you come to believe it, God smiles at you as his beloved child and says, “ah, shalom!”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
