Let us pray: Dear Savior,  as the living stones which comprise Your temple here on earth, Your goal for us is to shout out Your mercy, compassion, and salvation.  Your goal for us is to confess Your goodness and live it in a manner worthy of the trust You have placed within us.  Today, we ask You to reinforce those living truths.  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, THE ROCK OF AGES AND THE CORNERSTONE OF OUR FAITH!

TEXT:  I Peter 2: 4-10

Dearly Beloved By Christ: 

         Most people would call him crude and illiterate.  After all, Peter was merely a fisherman who used his brawn every day to scratch out a living.  He had no college education.  He didn’t occupy a seat of high honor in the community.  He wasn’t well versed in the culture of the world like St. Paul was.  And yet, the older I get and the more I read of Peter and study his writings, the more impressed I’ve become.  He reveals a very high intellect.  He’s direct and to the point.  And he’s also given to great poetic ability in conveying Godly truths to us—as in our lesson today.

         We all know that his given name was: Cephas, or Simon.  We know his brother Andrew introduced him to Jesus.  We know that both followed John the Baptist before Jesus burst on the scene.  We know him as the spokesman for the 12.  We know that Jesus gave him the name: Peter, which means: rock; due to his tremendous confession of Christ: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  And of course, the rest of his life with its great highs and lows is the stuff of legend.

I

         By the time St. Peter writes this 1^st epistle he is an old man who knows death and then eternal life are not far off.  Probably his wife is already there and although he doesn’t mention it, no doubt he longs to be with her in glory.  With age, St. Peter has mellowed a bit.  His brawny body has gotten weaker, but his intellect and concern for hurting souls has become more acute.  So has his ability to be a bit more nuanced in his writing.  And that’s what really struck me this week as I looked at this lesson.  Listen to how he begins in addressing his fellow believers: “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

         Did you catch the play on words Peter uses?  Recall that his God-given name, Peter, means rock.  Recall also that his name is based on an open, honest confession of Christ as the only Savior.  So, everything about Peter is based on those Reformation principles we hold so dear: Faith alone in Christ, grace alone which comes from Christ, and Scripture alone which tells us and conveys to us these truths—confessing those  fundamental principles are the basis for being a Christian rock.  Thus, Peter is telling us that Christ, not him, is the real Rock of Ages, and that since He’s risen and lives, by our same confession we become living stones to His glory, as well.   To me that says that Peter wasn’t illiterate or crude at all!  No, such writing shows just how sophisticated his mind really was, a mind enlightened and inspired by the Spirit.

II

         This process of becoming “living stones” is also a lifelong one.  No matter your current age, every one of us needs to constantly grow in our faith.  We need to learn more and more and to better reflect the forgiving love of Jesus which continually builds us up.  Once you quit growing you become a dead stone.  Christ doesn’t want that.  Dead stones cannot cry out His praises.  So, Peter speaks about how we “are being built into spiritual stones.”  That means this Godly action of spiritual growth is ongoing and happens every single day. It occurs by being Christian parents, believing spouses, and Godly citizens. It happens through being so grateful for the forgiveness for all sins that Christ won on the cross for us that we willingly sacrifice our time, our talents, and our treasure for Him.  It’s also a reminder that such sacrifices are made pleasing to God only because Christ’s holiness covers our still imperfect attempts at living up to our high calling!  That fact is reiterated later on when Peter refers to Jesus as the Cornerstone, the foundation of our faith.

         To drive home this point St. Peter now quotes his proof of this from both Isaiah and also Ps. 118.  “For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to (eternal) shame.’  Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.  But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.’  And, ‘A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’  They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.”

         The Christian faith isn’t built on St. Peter.  He knows he’s just a man, a sinner like the rest of us.  He knows he’s not worthy of God’s love.  I can well imagine him recalling his denial of Christ before the crucifixion.  He also knows that those religious leaders in Caiaphas’ palace rejected Jesus.  They stumbled and fell because they failed to confess Him as their Savior.   They failed to embrace Him in love after He desperately tried to embrace them with His loving forgiveness.  May such rejection or apathy never infect or inflict itself upon any of us! 

III

         Humble believers don’t usually think of themselves as God’s earthly VIP’s.  We would say that such an honor is reserved for the 11 apostles along with St. Paul.  But, Peter the rock begs to differ.  Humbled faith always does.  True faith isn’t flashy.  It doesn’t seek human high honors.  It merely seeks to serve the Lord with a glad heart because He has served us in love with His forgiveness and His eternal life.  So, Peter wraps up with this incredible verse about each of you: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

         What job, what status in life is more important and conveys more honor than serving God Almighty?  That’s right, none.  So, as priests of God, as Christians whose lives are all about being living stones conveying ongoing sacrifices to His glory, we’re special beyond compare!  Peter spent a lifetime learning that lesson.  Today he seeks to give to you and me this wisdom.  And all of us are richer for it!  Isn’t that really the reason you came to church today?—Yes, by God’s grace you always leave more wealthy than when you entered through His doors.  This is St. Peter’s legacy to each of you.   Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH…..

Pastor Thomas H. Fox 

Let us pray: Dear Savior, today we ask that You take away the pain of our loneliness, uncertainty, and fear over the future.  Remind us that our lives are in Your capable hands.  Remind us that the salvation You won for our souls was part of Your holy Father’s eternal plan for us.  Remind us that Your death was really our death to sin and that Your resurrection was really our resurrection to a new life filled with Godly power.  Yes, when you fill our hearts with such profound truths, nothing can keep us down.  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, OUR RISEN LORD AND SAVIOR!

TEXT:  Luke 24: 13-35

Dearly Beloved in Christ: 

         Years ago I had no idea what GERD, or gastro-esophageal reflux disease, really was.  But, I’ve found out.  It is heart-burn.  Chest-crushing pain caused by stomach acid injecting itself up into the esophagus.  I’ve read that well over 10 million Americans suffer from this disease, and millions of others have occasional bouts with heart-burn as well.  Health care companies have made a fortune, literally billions of dollars combating it.  Any of you who have suffered from heart-burn, or its virulent form known as: GERD, know just how grateful you are when you get it under some sort of control.  And for those of you under 40, or who have never experienced such pain, just wait and you’ll find out someday!  And when you do, you’ll run for the Zantac or the antacid bottle for relief.

         As I looked over this familiar text, I was struck by one phrase: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”  Obviously this is a different form of heartburn, isn’t it?  This is a type to be welcomed and not shunned.  So, my question for you is this:

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO HEAVENLY HEARTBURN?

I

         It is Easter day.  Two of Jesus’ followers, Cleopas and probably Luke, the writer of this gospel, are walking back to Emmaus, a village about 7 miles outside of Jerusalem.  They were heartsick.  They had seen Christ killed and laid in the grave.  They had heard reports of His resurrection from the women and others, but those reports seemed too good to be true.  So, they felt alone, forlorn, hopeless and helpless.  Their heavenly future looked rather dim to them.  After all, they thought they had found the Messiah Who would win them a place in glory, but now He was dead and gone.  Life seemed a dead-end.  (No doubt, their stomachs were in turmoil and heart-burn, the kind we know, was churning their insides, too.)

         Suddenly a man catches up with them.  They don’t recognize Him.  It is Jesus, but He prevented them from realizing exactly who it really was.  In order to get them to talk about their inner pain, He asks them a leading question: “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”  Listen to how Luke describes their feelings and their plight.  “They stood still, their faces downcast.  One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?’ ‘What things?’ he asked.  ‘About Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied.  ‘He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.—But the church leaders killed him.” 

         Obviously from the full length answer of Cleopas and Luke they understood that Jesus was meant to be the Messiah.  He was the One foretold in over 300 Old Testament prophecies.  He was the One meant to redeem Israel, as they said.  That is, the One Who God sent to save souls and lead them to a heavenly home.  They even make reference to the reports of His resurrection, don’t they?  But, sadly, these two men are just like us in that they think life is all about walking by sight and not by faith.  And since they haven’t seen or directly experienced the risen Lord, their faith and their lives are filled with inner pain, with heartburn of the soul.

II

         At this, Jesus chides them.  “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

         Every Christian who has ever read this passage has thought: “How I would have loved to have been a fly buzzing around them that day!”  Just imagine hearing directly from Jesus all the Old Testament references about Him!  Imagine having Him talk about Genesis 3:15 where God promised to send one seed, one child, born of the woman who would crush Satan’s power.  Imagine have Him describe the words of Psalm 22 where Christ is on the cross.  Imagine hearing the imagery of the one Branch from whom the entire tree of eternal life would spring forth as prophesied by Zechariah. 

         A few times in my life I have heard learned men, usually my professors, explain in depth the truth of God concerning Christ and been transfixed.  A few times I have heard them soar with eloquence born of the Holy Spirit about how God reached down from eternity and touched our dirty souls, making us eternally clean and infusing in us the power of the Spirit.  And when I experienced those events I, too, had heartburn, but not the physically painful kind.  No, I had heartburn which took away physical pain, which enabled me to rise far above it—toward glory!  O to have been a fly on the wall!

         But, the point here is that we don’t have to dream about what we’ve missed out on.  No, the point is that the living Christ, the Word made flesh, still speaks to us today through and in His living Word.  As we search the Scriptures, we slowly uncover great mysteries and great truth and even greater comfort.  For Christ meets us in His Word and gives us everlasting forgiveness for all our sins.  He gives us the faith to swallow His medicine of deliverance.  He makes us whole and clean and thankful because He has won peace with God for us and now hands us that peace in His Word and in His sacraments.  There is no pain that Christ has not felt.  There is no pain that Christ did not triumph over.  There is no pain that He cannot relieve.  There is no soul that He cannot heal.—That’s the point of today’s lesson!  Surrender your life to the care of the Great Physician and be healed of the heartburn of uncertainty and doubt!  And when you do, you’ll learn that it is liberating to walk by faith and not merely by sight.

         Well, you know the rest of the story.  They arrive at Emmaus.  They ask Jesus to stay and eat with them.  He does.  And as He assumes His usual position at the head of the table and invokes prayer before handing out the bread, their eyes are opened and they recognize their Lord!  Immediately Christ vanishes because His work with them is done.  They now know the truth and it has set them free!  So, these overjoyed men hurriedly walk back the 7 miles to Jerusalem, pound on the door of the Upper Room where Jesus has just appeared to the 11 with Thomas absent, and as they announce their news, they also hear the others say to them: “It is true!  The Lord has arisen and has appeared to Simon.” 

         Do you think Luke or Cleopas ever forgot this event?  Do you think their longing after heavenly heartburn ever subsided?  Well, if you examine their lives from that moment on, the answer is: No!  The truth had set them free from inner turmoil and uncertainty.  By clinging to Christ they knew exactly what the future held for them—heaven.  And now you know that, too, for today Christ has walked and talked with you.  Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH….

Pastor Thomas H. Fox 

Let us pray: Dear Lord Jesus, we have been washed clean of sin and shame by Your precious blood.  We have been given the gift of a heavenly home through faith in Your Easter victory.  We have reaped countless spiritual, physical, and emotional blessings as a result of Your loving triumph over the cross on our behalf.  And yet, because we are still confined to frail flesh and blood, at times we doubt.  At times we are plagued by worry and uncertainty as to whether all of this true and as to whether it is really for us.  At times, we even worry that perhaps you have forgotten about us.  Today dispel those fears and doubts as You once did with the disciples in that locked room.  And as in their case, replace such worry with fearless, unending joy!  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM GOD OUR FATHER AND THE LORD OF THE GRAVE, JESUS CHRIST!

TEXT:  John 20: 19-31

Dearly Beloved by the Easter King!

         Everywhere you turn, you run into straw men.  That is, you run into people who caricature the Christian faith and then take great delight in crumpling up that caricature and tossing it away into the waste basket of stupidity and unbelief.  One of the favorite straw man arguments used to attack Christianity is called: blind faith.  How often have you read or been told that your faith really is blind?  Some will tell you: “How do you know Christ arose?  Did you see Him?  You weren’t there!”  Others will say: “Why do you think you’re always right?  Has God appeared to you and told you something special?”  Still others will say: “If God’s really in your corner, than ask Him to do something extraordinary and then perhaps I’ll accept it.”  Try as you might to answer such unbelief, in the end such people will laugh with derision: “Yours is just a blind faith.  You are no different from any other religions of this world.  Marx was right, ‘religion is the opiate for the unthinking masses.’  You’re a weak-willed person who needs an emotional crutch, but I’m better than that!”

         Is our faith really so blind?  Is it really so unproveable and undefendable?  Does our faith have nothing to do with reality, with rationality?  Is our faith based on human subjective whims and emotions?  Is it so totally divorced from reason and the brain?  Is that what Christ had in mind when He said: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed?”  Of course not!  For does not the Bible say: “Test the spirits to see whether they are of God?”  Have not all things in the Bible been written for our learning and knowledge?  Have not the Scriptures been written so that our faith can rest on more than sin-tainted human emotions and whims?  Did not God act in time and space, in human history, via the cross and the empty tomb to give us a reason for believing?  Indeed He did!  And therefore when unbelief rears its arrogant head with one of those straw man arguments against Christianity, our response can and should be:

BLIND FAITH IS NO FAITH!

I

         Christ lived and died here on terra firma, planet earth.  That’s a fact.  Granted, maybe we weren’t there to witness it, but countless others were.  And they have given us their eyewitness accounts in Holy Writ.  Isn’t the eyewitness testimony of 2 or 3 or 4 enough for the courts of our land to discern the truth?  Isn’t such eyewitness testimony enough to go forward and operate on?  You certainly do exactly that when 3 different accountants confirm that you owe X amount of taxes.  You do exactly that when 3 different mechanics all diagnose the same problem with your car.  You do exactly that when 3 eyewitnesses confirm to you, the jury, that the defendant really did steal that Lexus they were driving.  We humans weigh evidence and then either accept it or reject it.  So, let’s now weigh our text.

         “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!  After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” 

         Here we have a room full of witnesses.  Obviously they were not filled with a great deal of faith in Christ’s resurrection at this point.  They were skeptical.  They were hard to convince.  Even though they had seen His miracles and, heard the reports from the women and Peter that Christ was alive again; even though  the two disciples from Emmaus had just arrived to tell them of their encounter with the resurrected Christ, and even though they surely wanted to believe—they weren’t ready just yet to put their faith in Jesus’ resurrection.  Why?  Because they feared the Jews who had killed Christ.  They feared that a similar fate awaited them.  Self preservation is the greatest of all instincts.  We see here that self-preservation was their chief motivator—not belief in the resurrection.  Otherwise they wouldn’t have been hiding in that locked room.

         Next, the unexpected happens.  Christ appears!  He miraculously is just there in their midst!  He doesn’t have to walk through the door.  After all, it’s locked.  And yet, He appears because He’s God.  And not some ghostly form of God, but a physical reality that they can touch and feel.  Note how He shows them His hands and feet.  Luke’s account says that Jesus told them to touch Him, too.  But here we hear that the first words from His mouth were: “Peace be with you!”  Christ came to give inner peace instead of turmoil and emotional chaos.  Indeed, the Christian faith is all about peace.  Peace of conscience and peace of soul.  It worked, here, too.  For we’re told: “They were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”  Christ’s resurrection banishes fear and the uncertainty that it  breeds.

         Next, He empower them, and through them all Christians, to do the very same thing—to banish fear.  He empowers them to give the blessings of Easter peace and forgiveness of sins to sinners who acknowledge their need of it.  “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.  And with that He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’”

         Christ’s physical resurrection proved that He is God.  It proves that His victory over sin and death is a definite reality.  It proves that He has the power to forgive sins—for only God can do that.  Thus, any and every time that we forgive sins, the power of His cross and His empty tomb is transferred through us to that sorrowful sinner who longs for it.  And even though Christ may not be physically present here this morning, His Word and the peace it conveys is!  Peace Be With You!

II

         So far we’ve seen that Jesus’ resurrection created confidence among those fearful followers.  But if their testimony isn’t enough for it to create confidence in you, then listen up!  “Now Thomas was not with the disciples when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

         Obviously Thomas was not easily convinced.  He was a thoroughly modern man.  He wanted to scientifically test their claims with his eyes, his hands, and his senses.  He wanted to put the Lord God to the test.  That Thomas is exactly like every other Thomas out there—including you.  We want to believe.  We want to trust.  We want to be strong in the faith.  But often we are o so weak.  Often we worry that God doesn’t really love us, or that He’s forgotten about us, or that He can’t help us with a certain problem.  God’s Word may tell us one thing, and our heart goes and tells us something else.—But God is greater than our hearts and right here He proves it!

         “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.  Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’  Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.’”

         When Thomas is off alone, worried, doubting, on edge—Christ still remembers him.  Christ cares for the individual.  And Christ will always seek us out and find us when we least expect it.  And although Christ may be physically absent from this earth today, His Word of comfort still comes!  He still bids you not to worry or fear.  He still gives you peace.—In the Word of absolution, in the waters of Baptism, and in His Holy Supper.  What’s your response to all this?

         Thomas’ response was: “My Lord and my God!”   That is to be the echo of every believer, too.  It is our confession.  It is our faith.  But it isn’t blind.  It was and still is based on reality.  The reality that Christ lived and died for us.  The reality that Christ still lives in heavenly glory—ready to come again to judge the living and the dead.  The reality that heaven really is our home.

         My friends, blind faith is a belief that has no basis in history.  Blind faith is based merely on an individual’s whims or personal prejudices.  Blind faith says: Me, me, me.  Blind faith is not the Christian faith!  For our faith is based on historical reality.  It is based on what God says instead of what I may think.  It comes from Him as a gift.  It focuses on Him.  It bows to Him, alone.  It doesn’t say: “My Lord and My God.”  Instead, it says: “My Lord and my God!”

         Often we Christians are discontented because we cannot yet physically see Christ.  Somehow we think that if we were present, like Thomas, in that upper room that night we would possess an extra-special faith.  That we would then be blest in a extra-special way.  But instead of feeling sorry for yourself and thinking less of your faith, you need to heed the closing words of Christ to Thomas.  “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!”  Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP AND GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN  

Pastor Thomas H. Fox