Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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Sounds cliché I know, but life is a journey. As with all journeys, it’s always nice to know where you’re going. Knowing the destination makes all the difference in how you travel.

The life of Jesus Christ is a journey. In fact, the church’s calendar is set up in such a way that we follow Jesus on His journey every year. Unlike the secular calendar, the church’s calendar begins on the 1st Sunday in Advent, which this year was November 30th of 2008. That was the Sunday that we began to light the paschal candle or the “big candle” as the acolytes call it. Jesus Christ, the true light, was coming into the world and we note that by lighting this special candle. For four Sundays, we prepare ourselves for the beginning of Christ’s journey. He leaves the Father in heaven and comes down to earth.

Christ’s journey comes full circle as He returns to the Father in heaven. So today, the Ascension of our Lord, marks the end of His journey. And so, this is the last Sunday that the paschal candle will be lit until we begin a new year on November 29th.

So as we follow the journey of Christ’s life as mapped out for us by the liturgical calendar, we recognize the point of origin for His journey. It didn’t begin in a stable in Bethlehem. Nor did it end in a tomb outside of Jerusalem. His journey began in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. He has been there from all eternity. And His journey ends in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. And He will be there for all eternity. That is the journey that the Church takes along with our Lord every year.

As Jesus walks with His disciples from the Upper Room after the Last Supper and goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, He describes His journey like this, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” (John 16:28). Without a doubt, Jesus knows the journey that His Father has sent Him on. And He knows what He will encounter on that journey - trials, troubles, suffering and a heavy cross to bear. But He knows with absolute certainty how and where the journey will end. Knowing your destination makes all the difference in how you travel. (more…)

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This coming Thursday, the Ascension of our Lord is on the church’s calendar and we’ll celebrate that next Sunday in worship. As He is about to ascend into heaven, Jesus gave His “great commission” to His disciples saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been give to me. Go therefore and make disciples of ALL NATIONS.” How? “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

The part of the “great commission” that gave the apostles some trouble for a while was that bit about “all nations.” It never dawned on them that “all nations” meant that they were actually to preach the gospel to everyone, regardless of race or nationality. They thought that God had elected just the Jews to salvation and so their task was to preach Christ to the Jews baptize them wherever they were in “all the nations.”

But just when you think you’ve got your life all neatly organized and comfortably under control, along come some gentiles who’ve heard your sermon and actually believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and the only name given under heaven by which men must be saved. And they want to be baptized. Now what do you do? (more…)

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How is it that two people can read the exact same passage of Scripture and come away with two very different and even opposing ideas of what it means? One reads it as though it were law - God’s command, telling us what we must do. The other reads the very same text and hears the gospel - God’s promise of what He is doing. Luther was right when he said that the one who can properly discern between law and gospel deserves to be called a doctor of theology. Take our gospel reading for this morning for example. How have you heard what has been read? Is it law or gospel? Is this a command or a promise?

Actually, both are present. There’s a command and there’s a promise here. The problem is, we usually get them confused and end up calling the command the promise and the promise the command. It makes all the difference in the world, both in the way we hear these words from our Lord and in the effect these words have on our life of faith.

What stands out in this text is the repetition that Jesus uses to make His point with His disciples. Six times in these eight verses, He speaks to them about ‘bearing fruit.’ He even throws in a couple of adjectives like, ‘bear much fruit,’ and ‘bear more fruit’ to emphasize the fact that He’s not talking about something that is to happen just occasionally or rarely.

Then, five times in these eight verses, Jesus speaks to His disciples saying ‘abiding in Me.’ And interestingly, its never just ‘abide in Me.’ It’s always reciprocal. ‘Abide in me and I in you.’

“Bear fruit.” “Abide in me.” One is a command and one is a promise. Knowing which is which is critical to hearing and applying our Lord’s words to our life rightly. Getting it wrong means that we will hear our Lord saying just the opposite as His words really means and what He truly intends for us to take from His words. (more…)

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The first “Lutheran” hymnal was published in Wittenberg in the summer of 1524. It was called the “Spiritual Hymn Book” and contained 38 hymns, 24 of which were written by Luther himself.

What began in Wittenberg quickly spread throughout Europe wherever the Reformation had taken hold.
Just in the years from 1524 until Luther’s death in 1546, 22 years, there were over 100 hymnals published in Germany alone. In Wittenberg, the 1524 hymnal was replaced with a new one in 1526 and another in 1528. And it continued on like that for quite awhile.

For us, our “new hymnal,” “The Lutheran Service Book” is not quite three years old. But before that, we used the “blue hymnal,” “Lutheran Worship,” published in 1982 for 24 years. And before that it was the “red hymnal,” “The Lutheran Hymnal,” published in 1941, which we used for 41 years. So, thankfully the pace of new hymnals has slowed considerably since the 16th century.

There is however one hymnal that the church has used for a very long time and that has no shelf life. It never goes out of date. It’s the very first hymnal of the church. First published by ancient Israel and we still use it to this day. It’s called “the Book of Psalms.” The Psalms were the sung hymns of the Old Testament church which work just as well for the New Testament church. Living on the New Testament side of history, we simply stick a Trinitarian ending to these Old Testament hymns, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,” and make them our own saying, “as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.” (more…)