Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

The Christian’s hope always starts from the pessimists awareness of the desperate situation of men and women who “are by nature sinful and unclean.” To this extent, Christianity shares the pessimistic outlook on life and the hope which the Christian faith presents men and women must always begin there. This is why the Biblical doctrine of sin is so important. It shows us the true condition of ourselves.

Optimists may have a hard time accepting the Christian faith as the bible presents it because they cannot accept the sinful nature of the human being. How prevalent in our society today is the objection to the Christian faith because speaks too much about sin and hell?

But the distinctive quality of the Christian faith that makes it not just a compromise between optimism and pessimism but that supercedes them both is the claim that men and women are not helplessly trapped in sin. We are not bound by the forces of evil in this world. We are not dependant upon the goodness in ourselves which is in reality not there.

We appeal to Another. Another who is all good and no evil. Another who overcame the evil that rules this world. The essence of the Christian world view is that in our pessimistic despair, we do not turn to ourselves in optimistic self confidence but we abandon ourselves and appeal to the sinless one who overcame death and the grave - Jesus Christ.

As Jesus made His appearance known to those men and women in that room on that first Easter night, He says, “Peace be with you.” Suddenly, these men and women who were filled with such despair were filled with a greater joy than either their optimism or pessimism had previously allowed them to hope for. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead presented them with a hope that superceded all previous hope.

The Christian hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. His resurrection shows us that we do not have to look to the goodness in us as the basis for hope. Nor must we resign ourselves to despair with no end in sight. In His humanity Christ has united Himself with us forever, irreversibly. In our baptism, we have been united to Him. St. Paul says “having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead…” it is now not the new you or the old you but it is “Christ in you - the hope of glory.” (Col. 2:12, 1:27).

The answer to sin is not to just live with it but to repent of it and be forgiven for all of it. There is hope to be had but it is only to be had by the Christian. The optimist has a false hope and the pessimist has no hope. May God grant us His Holy Spirit who gives us holy desires and the faith to believe in the possibility of obtaining those desires because we are united to Christ who has risen from the dead.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Ours is a time that is filled with anxiety. The war against terrorism seems to have no end in sight because the terrorists refuse to give up. Kidnappings, murders, drugs, theft – right here in Maine. Add to that, illness, accidents and lost jobs. And the people of God are not immune to any of this. In fact we share in this discord. We also experience many of the dead ends that the people of this world face in the anxiety of these times. Where the people of the world turn for comfort and hope, I’m not sure – but I do know where the people of God turn! It is for such a time as ours that St. Paul could well have written the great words of Romans 8. They ring true and clear, sending out a word of hope and assurance to the people of God in his day and in ours.
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There was a day when the seminaries of the Church had no buildings, no campuses, no libraries. Students simply learned theology from a Rabbi whom they chose to study under. The teaching would take place as they walked together along the road, sat together on the shore of the sea, hung out together on the porch around the temple, dined together around a table. Much of the teaching took the form of question and answer. But not teacher questioning student. No, just the opposite. Students would pose questions to their teacher and the teacher would pontificate and speechify until the student was satisfied that his question had been answered or until they were sorry they ever asked. The Rabbis would rattle off this quote and that quote and offer what this one said and that one said about on such a topic.
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“When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’”

Just yesterday, 32 years ago, the U. S. Supreme Court issued it’s ruling in the case of Roe vs. Wade. Since then, there have been millions of children aborted in this country. So many that Herod’s offense seems like a minor misdemeanor by comparison. So many, that Rachel’s weeping and great mourning is hardly a whimper by comparison.
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The prophet Micah has two questions for you this morning. The first question is this one. “With what shall I come before the Lord?” What sort of offering do you think would make God happy? It’s the ultimate dilemma. What do you give to the God who has everything?
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Well, after a long time waiting, the day has finally come. This is the day that we’ve been anxiously awaiting for some time now and I don’t know about you, but I had trouble sleeping last night just thinking about it. I’m sure that you were as anxious for this day to finally come as for Christmas to finally arrive. This is the day we join with friends and neighbors in parties and celebration all focused on that special event – the event that we’ve been building up to for weeks now. After all of the hype and all of the speculation the day is finally here. It’s the day of the Transfiguration of Our Lord.
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How many times have we ourselves asked or heard someone else ask this question: “If God didn’t want us to fall into temptation, then why did He make us like He did?” The implication behind the question is that God made a mistake in the way He made us. Therefore He shouldn’t get to upset if we don’t work quite like He expects us to.
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It began as an ordinary day, no different than any other. The sun rose, the roosters crowed. She felt the same stiffness in her joints that was there every morning. An ache here, a pain there. Same old thing. Routine stuff. There were chores to do. Cooking, laundry, mending. Whatever 1st century women do, that was her day. Oh, and there was water that must be drawn. That was woman’s work. This was a time before plumbing and spigots brought the water from the well to the house. She had to go to the water and carry it back in buckets and jars. She went to Jacob’s well for water. Probably because it was the closest. The normal, every day routine of drawing water at the local well can sometimes become a life changing experience.
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Our journey through this season of Lent continues now into its fourth week. The destination is Easter. But nobody gets to Easter without first passing by the cross. Not even Jesus. And what has been somewhere off in the distance for awhile now is getting very, very close.
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St. Paul writes to the Romans saying, “Just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…” (Rom.5:12).

Taxes and death – they both have deadlines. Death comes to all because all sin, he says. Earlier this morning, you confessed that you sin. You sin because you are a sinner. Death is going to come to you. There is no exception – no, not one, for all sin.
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