by Jeffrey Spencer | May 27, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for May 26
Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday – May 26, 2024
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Amen.
My sermon text for today is Isaiah 6, so let me bring you back to what we heard there in our first reading. As we heard, in the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah was given a grand vision. Isaiah saw God in God’s throne room. Actually, he only saw the hem of God’s robe, which, just by itself, filled the temple. It was a spectacular, mysterious scene with heavenly beings called seraphs flying around. Seraphs are fiery angels with six wings. These seraphs are covering their faces out of reverence for God as they sing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts!” The ground shook and the room filled with smoke. There was an altar with live coals burning upon it, glowing red. If this were a scene in a movie you would need top-notch CGI to do it justice! This vision was magnificent and it was terrifying – and it has much to teach us about God and about ourselves. It has much to teach us about the Holy Trinity, and how sinful human beings relate to a holy God. It has much to teach us about who and whose we are, and how. So let’s dig in, shall we?
First of all, we shouldn’t move too quickly past the fact that this vision was given in the year in which King Uzziah died. This not only gives us a time stamp on when Isaiah had his vision, it describes the context for his vision. King Uzziah reigned in Judah for 52 years. This isn’t quite as long as Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years, but it was still a pretty long time. Like Elizabeth, he was the only king most people in Judah had ever known. For the most part, Uzziah was a good king. However, in the later years of his reign his success started to go to his head. In a display of shocking arrogance, he went strutting into the area of the temple reserved for the priests and burned incense. This might sound like a minor thing to us, but in that setting it was a grave offense. Uzziah was essentially saying he was above God’s law, that he could be his own god. And his pride led to his downfall. He was struck with leprosy. He was increasingly sickly and unable to perform many of his duties as king. Meanwhile, the kingdom of Assyria, their rival next door, was growing stronger every day.
It is unclear whether Uzziah had died before or after Isaiah had his vision – it only says he had his vision the same year that he died – but either way this was clearly a time of widespread national anxiety for the people of Judah. There was a lot of uncertainty in the air. And it was in the midst of this anxiety and uncertainty that Isaiah was given this vision. Isaiah saw that whatever was going on with the throne of Judah, God was still on his throne! Kings come and go. Some are holier than others. But through it all, God remains on his throne, and God alone is holy, holy, holy.
This is the first lesson for us in this passage. This is the first lesson to be found in this vision of Isaiah’s. We don’t have a king, of course, but in an election year people are starting to get anxious about who will sit in the seat of executive power for this next presidential term. Along with this there seems to be a sense of unease about growing threats in the world of various sorts. While we shouldn’t stick our heads in the sands about any of this, there is a great truth we can all hold onto: whatever happens, the Lord is on his throne. God will still be in power. God’s reign will continue, unabated!
Maybe your anxiety or uncertainty comes from a totally different place. Maybe it has to do with your relationships, or your financial situation, health problems, or your uncertain future. The same great truth holds for you: God is on his throne. God is in charge. God rules over his creation with incredible power and glory.
God’s power isn’t automatically good news, I know. While God is magnificent and glorious, God’s power, if you really understand or experience it, is terrifying!
I remember once traveling in Arizona when my boys were little. We were driving along the Mogollon Rim, which is a stunningly beautiful area with pine trees and red rocks and vast vistas. We were driving along the rim when I pulled over and got out to take a picture. There was some weather coming in, but it was behind me. It didn’t ruin the view. I took my picture when a bolt of lightning struck the ground, probably less than thirty yards away. It was so loud, it sounded like the sky was splitting in two. I could feel it in every cell of my body. I could feel it in my hair! For a second or two, I was undone. It felt like everything was over. It was magnificent, and it was terrifying.
This is what it was like for Isaiah to see God’s throne room, times about a million! It was magnificent and it was terrifying! It was magnificent and terrifying because of the overwhelming holiness of God! The word “holy” at its most basic means separate, or set apart. It also means to be filled with divine purity and power. And what is more holy than God himself? “Holy, holy, holy,” the angels were singing. This word is repeated three time to emphasize God’s holiness. I don’t want to trivialize this holy chorus, but it isn’t unlike how people will say things like, “I love this so, so, so much,” or maybe, “I am never, never, never doing that again.” We repeat for emphasis, right? These fiery angels repeated this word to emphasize God’s holiness.
But there’s something else to the three-fold “holy” in the angels’ song. Here’s where the Holy Trinity comes in. From the earliest days of the Christian church, this has been seen as a subtle reference to the Trinity, to the one God who exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As St. Ambrose wrote in the 4th century on this very passage: “[The angels] say it not once, lest you should believe that there is but one; not twice, lest you should exclude the Spirit; they say not holies, lest you should imagine there is a plurality, but they repeat three times and say the same word, that even in a hymn you may understand the distinction of Persons in the Trinity, and the oneness of the Godhead.”
And think about it, the entire Trinity can be found in Isaiah’s vision if you look for it. God the Father is there with the hem of his robe filling the room. The Son is symbolized by the altar, the place of sacrifice. The Spirit, which just last week was depicted as fire, is there in these fiery angels and the words they proclaim. Sounds like the Holy Trinity to me!
Isaiah finds the presence of this Holy Trinity magnificent and terrifying. After all, this Trinity is holy, holy, holy, and Isaiah is most certainly not! In the light of God’s holiness, Isaiah can only see his unholiness. It all shows up. It is all revealed. There are no shadows, no soft focus. Isaiah’s sin is utterly exposed by the brilliant light of God’s holiness.
And so Isaiah’s first response is not joy or ecstasy, it is terror! He is undone! “Woe is me!” he says, “I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
But here’s the thing. This God he has encountered is not only holy. This God is also gracious! This God is merciful! One of the seraphs takes a coal from the altar and presses it to Isaiah’s lips. This sounds like a horrible punishment. It sounds like an act of torture. But it is not. It is an act of grace. It is an act of forgiveness. “Now that this has touched your lips,” the angel said, “your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” The same lips that cursed and gossiped and lied, the same lips that had been pressed to idols, the same lips that had been used in service of self, would now be used to the glory of God. Those same lips would be used to proclaim God’s magnificent and terrifying Word as a prophet of the Lord. Those same lips would ultimately be used to proclaim the coming of a savior.
Dear friends, we have the same unclean lips that Isaiah does. Our lips are used to curse and gossip and lie. Our lips are used to give glory to false gods, usually ourselves as we pridefully talk ourselves into being a law unto ourselves, into being our own gods. And in the brilliant light of God’s holiness, we are undone. There is no sin, no matter how deeply hidden in our hearts, that is not exposed.
But the same God that is overwhelmingly holy is also abundantly gracious! The fire upon the altar in God the Father’s throne room has now been extinguished by the sacrifice of the Son, who sits at his right hand. From that altar the Spirit brings to us not a hot coal, but the very body and blood of the Son, that they might touch our lips and blot out our sin.
You see, Isaiah’s vision was not an isolated incident. That vision continues in every Christian worship service as we gather in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It continues in these moments in worship where the veil between heaven and earth is very thin. It continues as we sing, “Holy, holy, holy,” as part of our liturgy, echoing the very same song that continues to be sung in God’s throne room. It happens when sinners like us come into the presence of a God who is holy, holy, holy, but also gracious, forgiving, and merciful.
Whatever is going on in your life today, whatever uncertainly or anxiety plagues you, know that God is on his throne. As God sends his Word into your ears today, and as Christ’s body and blood are touched to your lips, you take part in this same vision that Isaiah did. You come into the presence of the Holy Trinity, who blots out all your sin, granting you forgiveness and new life. In so doing this God who reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit commissions your redeemed lips for a purpose: that you might give him praise, that you might call him by name in every time of need, and that you might speak in ways that give him glory.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
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
