What Does This Mean?

Dear saints, the Introit this morning begins with a request: “Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud.” There seems to be some burden on the Psalmist as he continues, “Your face, Lord, do I seek; hide not your face from me.” As the words of Jesus in the gospel reading come to pass, perhaps these words came to the minds of the disciples. Jesus tells of an hour coming where they will be excommunicated from the synagogues. A time coming when they would be hunted down by their own people and killed. For what reason? Because those doing the persecuting think they are actually serving the Lord by their sinful actions.

This message of Jesus wouldn’t be new to the disciples. It has been in his teaching since the Sermon on the Mount. And since they knew the Old Testament, they would know it has been the plight of the servants of God for centuries, even millennia. This excommunication from the synagogues happened. It is all over the book of Acts. The message of Christ crucified was preached in them until the messenger was kicked out. They kept teaching and preaching this message at the riverside and in homes. They took it to the next town and repeated the scenario over and over.

The Jewish leaders who did not receive the Gospel and repent were not happy. And they sought to stop the preaching of this gospel to anyone. So not only did they excommunicate the messengers, they began to kill them. I direct you again to the book of Acts. St. Stephen boldly proclaims an unbridled and pointed message to the leaders culminating in this truth: in their sinful unbelief and resistance of Jesus they showed themselves to be a stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears and always resisting the Holy Spirit. Today this would be called a ‘hell-fire and brimstone’ sermon, but his goal was still to see the hearts of the hearers cut and have them repent of their murder of Christ, trusting in him for forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The council is cut to the heart. But it is not the cutting that the hearers at Pentecost have. This is a cutting that enraged them to the point they bare and grind their teeth in hatred. Stephen is seized and stoned. The words of Jesus come true. The hour is already underway.

And that time has not come to an end. It continues and will not end until our Lord returns. Sometimes the fiery trial that St. Peter mentions in the Epistle comes from blatant enemies of the church. Sometimes it comes from enemies within the visible church. And sometimes that trial comes from people who are ignorant that they are persecuting the church of Christ, but think they are representing it. And the reason this happens is because they have not known the Father, nor the Lord Jesus.

We could spend hours listing the times and ways and circumstances of Christian persecution around the world then and now. But instead, let’s focus on why Jesus tells the disciples and us these things are going to happen. Did you catch the reason? He lets you know these things are coming to keep you from falling away. Our Lord wants you to be prepared for betrayal. For hardship. For humiliation, arrest, even death at the hands of those who hate you because they do not know and hate the Father. Because he wants you to stay faithful and keep your faith.

A few days ago, the church celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord. Just before Jesus lifts his hands, blesses the disciples, and ascends, he opens their minds to understand the Scripture. He tells them that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. At the end of St. Matthew’s account, he says that all authority has been given to him in both heaven and earth. And so, he sends the disciples out to preach the gospel where they would baptize and teach all that Jesus had given them.

Once the promised Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost, the disciples begin to carry out this sending. They begin in Jerusalem and take the message of Christ to all the world. That message still spreads today. And you, dear Christian, who believe this message – believe and trust that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; he was born of the Virgin Mary; he suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, died, and was buried; that he rose from the dead and ascended to the Father; that he will come again in glory where we look for the resurrection of the dead – are the beneficiaries of these words of our Lord too.

While we do not suffer persecution as the early church did and, indeed, other parts of the world even today, it is also not right to say we have no troubles. Christians are targeted and labeled all sorts of nasty things because they believe the words of our Lord. They are fired, discriminated against, and threatened. This should not surprise us. The world hated Jesus enough to kill him. It isn’t surprising that the world would hate us too.

Yet the death of Jesus changed everything. In that death, the world is reconciled to Christ. He dies the death we all deserve and suffers the punishment we are owed. Now that he has conquered death, he sends the Holy Spirit to strengthen, guide, and protect us. Though we were like sheep scattered with no shepherd, he sought each of us out and brought us to himself. He cleansed us in the waters of baptism. He has removed your old heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh. He has given you life and warned you of what will certainly occur so that you will endure and live with him to eternity.

Yes, Jesus was talking to the disciples in our text, but his words apply to us too. He tells you these things are going to happen so that you do not fall away. Jesus has died and paid for all the sins of all who have, are, or will live. But because they do not know him, they reject this gift. Because they do not know him, animus directed at God is also directed to us. And as St. Peter reminds us, when we are insulted and put under hardship for the name of Christ, we are blessed. Blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God is upon us. So remember: Jesus has redeemed you. He has cleansed you. He is your light and your salvation. Because of him, not matter what is done to you, you have nothing to fear. For the Spirit that resides in you enlightens you, sanctifies you, and keeps you in the true faith. Amen.

Rev. Brent Keller 
Peace Lutheran Church 
Alcester, SD  

©2020 Brent Keller. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com.

I am delighted to announce another regular contributor will be joining our blog. Rev. Jason M. Kaspar was a fieldworker and vicar at my home parish while he was at seminary. I believe you all will enjoy having another voice to speak about things Lutheran. Here is his bio, which is also at the blog site, linked to the “About What Does this Mean? page.

I am a Confessional Lutheran Pastor, a member of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). I was born in Houston, TX. I grew up, the son of a Lutheran teacher.  We were always on the move. I lived in 12 cities and towns in the states of TX, KS, MO, MI, MS, and CO. I was a member of 11 LCMS congregations before attending the seminary.

I studied music education at Concordia (University) Ann Arbor, MI and voice performance at Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, CO.  I served as a cantor, choir director, and vocal coach at multiple congregations in the LCMS alongside my careers including mover, CDL driver, sign installer, and oil field cementing and fracturing lab tech.

Currently, I serve as Sole Pastor at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool, La Grange, Texas. I was ordained on June 16, 2019 at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Battle Creek, Michigan and installed at Mt. Calvary on July 31, 2019.  I am a product of the Alternate Route ordination program at Concordia Theological Seminary and revel in the service opportunities the Lord has granted me at this stage of life.

I am also blessed by the Lord by his allowance for me to participate in a local congregational mission plant in Bastrop, TX. There are three other LCMS pastors from my circuit participating in the mission plant from Smithville, Warda, and Winchester. The four of us rotate duties weekly at Epiphany Lutheran Church of Bastrop, TX, which meets at the 7th Day Adventist Church of Bastrop on Sundays at 11:30 am. Since we all 9 am churches, this minimally impacts our current calls. The impact on Epiphany is highly beneficial. She began meeting together for the Divine Service with the Lord’s Supper every Sunday on February 6th, 2022, inexpensively renting space and local pastors as well.

My doubly great grandfather, Rev. Jacob Kaspar, was a Lutheran pioneer missionary pastor from Switzerland to central Texas, serving from 1867-1900.  The first church he planted in Freyburg, TX is 12 miles south of us.  All three of his calls are less than 80 miles from my current congregation.  He rests in Christ at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Anderson, TX.  My maternal grandfather is Rev. Melvin R. Boehlke, retired from Bethany Lutheran, Huston, TX.  He also served Prince of Peace Lutheran, Belton, TX before receiving his eternal reward.

I’m an avid shooter and an aspiring hunter and fisherman.  I’m and experienced cook, enjoying the new culinary frontiers in Central Texas.  We recently discovered that the Kaspars are related by my paternal great grandmother and her mother to the Texas Wendish Lutheran immigrants to Serbin, TX of 1854.  My doubly great grandmother, Marie Magdalena (Moerbe) Werner was born in 1856 in Serbin, TX, in the second year of the original settlement of Texas Wendish Lutherans.  That’s a significant, unknown familial connection to the origin of the Texas district and the Lutheran churches of Fayette, Bastrop, and Lee Counties.

My lovely wife, Mandy, and I were married in 2006 and are enjoying our new lives in Texas.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

©2020 Jason Kaspar & Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

A sermon for Rogate, based on Numbers 21:4-9 and John 16:23-33. It was filmed for and will air on Main Street Living’s Sioux Falls, SD market today, May 17, 2020. Main Street Living is weekly television program broadcast in the North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. It is funded by donation from its viewers and the local congregations of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Dear friends, in this morning’s text, we find Israel roughly forty years after the Exodus. The generation that disbelieved and refused to enter the land of Canaan has died, just as the Lord had said they would. This next generation will take this land, but we see that their faithfulness isn’t any better than their parents and grandparents. They can’t go the direct route, so they start going around the land of Edom. And as it is easy to do on long journeys, the people got impatient. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

Perhaps I shouldn’t, but I find this humorous. The people say, “Moses, we are out here with no food and no water. And the food that we do have, food that comes from the Lord himself, is worthless.” After 40 years of wandering the wilderness because of your parents, you turn around and act just like they did. They are more mindful of delighting their taste buds than being thankful to their God for sustaining them with a miraculous food.

This defiance and rejection of God’s good gifts, his daily bread to his people, has a consequence. Just like all sin does. This time, the consequences are fiery serpents coming into the camp. People are bitten. Those people die.

Looking around and seeing what is going on, the people of Israel realize that they have sinned. They see death around every corner and know any wrong step may spell their end. And so, they go to Moses, go to their mediator, and ask him to pray for them. “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”

Moses takes their petition to the Lord. And because your God is a loving God, full of steadfast love, he hears their prayer. And he answers their prayer. But the answer isn’t the answer they expect. He does not take the snakes away. Instead, he gives his people a sign. A promise. Moses is to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole. I wonder if it resembled a cross. And everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.

And so, it was. The fiery serpent was made, it was lifted onto a pole, and all who were bitten would look at this bronze serpent, remember the promise God made to them when he answered their prayer, and they would live.

It is easy to see the parallel of the serpent on the pole and Jesus on the cross. I think many of us would make the connection without Jesus giving it to us in John 3. Yet it is Christ on the cross that brings us back to the Gospel text. Jesus speaks of his hour coming and even having come when the disciples would be scattered. And yet even with this scattering and the fear and hiding and, in the case of Peter, denying that would occur, Jesus says these things to them so that they would have peace. So, despite the tribulation that would come after his Ascension, they would take heart for he has overcome the world.

The church celebrates the Feast of the Ascension on Thursday. As Jesus returns to his Father, he does so not only as our brother and risen Lord, but also as our mediator. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Like Israel, we look at the gifts we have from our Father and treat them with disdain. And perhaps I’m just speaking for myself here, but the gift of prayer is one of the easier ones to overlook, take for granted, sometimes perhaps unconsciously ignore. But what a great gift we have in prayer! We are invited to come to the Father and unload our feelings, our desires, our fears. To confess our sin and beg for mercy and forgiveness. And know that, on account of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is given to us.

Jesus is indeed our mediator. He is the one who cut a new covenant between us and God. He is the one who was lifted up and died in our place. His blood atones for our sin. Because of this new covenant, we may boldly approach our Father and ask anything of him because the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and believed that I came from God.

This morning, Jesus invites us to “Ask.” Ask, and you will receive it. Ask, and your joy will be made full. For your Father loves to hear what his dear children have to say. He loves to answer your prayer. What a great and generous promise we have. God listens to and answers our prayer.

So let us pray: O God, the giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration grant that we may think those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Rev. Brent Keller 
Peace Lutheran Church 
Alcester, SD  

©2020 Brent Keller. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com.

A sermon for Cantate, based on John 16:5-15.

Dear saints, our Lord tells the disciples, “But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” But what are the “these things” which Jesus speaks of? We should remember that our Gospel reading picks up in the middle of Jesus’ discourse to his disciples. The full context is the Passover in the Upper Room mere hours before Jesus is arrested. But the more immediate context is Jesus explaining what is soon to come not only to him but to the disciples.

He tells them, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” He says, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”

It’s no wonder that the disciples were filled with sorrow. Jesus just told them he would be betrayed by one of them. He spoke of his impending death, but it doesn’t seem the disciples picked up on it. He told them the world would hate them, persecute them, and even kill them   thinking they were serving God. Wouldn’t you be sorrowful if you sat with Jesus and heard this?

I think what Jesus says next would be just as shocking: “It is to your advantage that I go away.” It seems hard to believe. Hard to fathom. Imagine hearing this as one of the Twelve: You’ve spent three years with Jesus. You’ve watched him heal the sick and cast out demons. You’ve heard him teach with authority and command the wind to be still…and feel and hear it be still. You’ve heard him tell you that he must die and rise. But it is still a shocking and sorrowful thing to hear.

But why is it to their advantage (and to ours!) that he goes away? It is so the Holy Spirit would come. The text says that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, can’t come; is not able to come until Jesus goes. Not until, on the cross, Jesus cries out in victory, “It is finished!” It is there that St. John says Jesus hands over the Spirit.

Just as Jesus said, the disciples do not see him for a short time, and then they do see him again. During those forty days with the disciples, Jesus will begin to go into the many things that he had to say to them that, at the time, they could not bear. St. Luke tells us just before the Lord ascends, he opens the minds of the disciples so that they would understand the Scriptures.

And, on Pentecost, the Spirit is sent. He comes and begins to convict the world. He begins to reprove and rebuke the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. The work of the Holy Spirit is to expose us to ourselves. God already knows us better than we do. He knows our faults, even the ones we don’t know we have. And so, the Spirit comes to enlighten us.

But notice that this convicting is of the world. It is true that we are convicted of our own sin as the Spirit shows us where we have failed to keep God’s Law. And because he keeps us in the true faith, we are led to repentance. We realize we have no righteousness of our own and look to Christ for our righteousness. We rejoice and sing because we have been judged righteous because of the blood of Christ shed for us. We, by the grace of God, have faith.

But the world does not. The world believes it can dictate what is and is not sin. The world believes it is righteous based on what it does or doesn’t do, think, or say. The world thinks it is clear of any judgment because of its own righteousness. And this is what the Holy Spirit comes to reprove and rebuke. He comes to show the world that this is not the case.

Yet we can narrow the work of the Spirit even further regarding the conviction of the world toward sin. The specific conviction the Spirit brings against sin is because the world does not believe in Jesus. Of all the sins possible, this is the worst. It is the chief sin and trumps all others. No matter how heinous a life someone lives, no matter what evil they have done, it is unbelief that tops it off. Remember what our Lord says to Nicodemus in the night: “He who believes in him (in Jesus) is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

The purpose John has in writing his gospel account is so people would read it, hear it, and believe in Jesus as their Savior. When you or anyone else hears the Word of God, it is the Spirit who works through it. When someone believes and is convicted, it is the work of the Spirit ensuring that the Word does not return to the Lord without accomplishing what it set out to do. So also, when the Word is rejected and unbelief tragically continues, it is the Spirit who judges that unbelief and unrighteousness.

Jesus is risen and he is ascended. His righteousness is laid upon all who call upon him and trust in him as Lord and Savior. Here the world is convicted concerning righteousness because it is only Christ who is righteous. The world, persisting in sin and unbelief, is unable to possess any true righteousness, no matter what good deeds they do in the eyes of men.

Finally, the Spirit convicts the world concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Satan is defeated. It is not that he was truly the ruler, but that he had acted as if he was, representing himself as the world’s ruler. That much of the world is under his influence shows the power he has despite his defeat. But this is the work of one already defeated and condemned. He knows he’s lost, so he’s trying to take as many as he can with him.

But you, dear Christian, are not of the world. It is why the world hates you. You are different. You are not under a judgment of condemnation but have been judged and declared righteous. You are not under sin and the penalty of unbelief but have been given the greatest gift possible: faith and life in Jesus Christ.

Know today that the Spirit of truth has come and is still here. He continues to guide us into all truth, which includes correcting us when we sin and lose our way, bringing us again to the Lord in repentance. And he does this for you because Jesus went away for a little while. After all, Jesus was crucified for you. He does this because our Lord ascended to the right hand of the Father where he rules and reigns. So, let us sing to the Lord, for he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. Amen.

Rev. Brent Keller 
Peace Lutheran Church 
Alcester, SD  

©2020 Brent Keller. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com.

Program note: As I published this morning’s post, it all of a sudden occurred to me that many of my friends may be unaware of my one published hymn on the subject of forgiving a neighbor his sins. (Call me a one hymn wonder!) So, I’ve put the hymn on the blog site in case you are interested. It is “Remember Christ Our Savior.” Feel free to use it or forget you ever saw it.

Pastor Bob Smith

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear saints, the Latin name for today is Jubilate. It means, “rejoice!” Yet, the gospel text this morning doesn’t seem to lend itself to a lot of rejoicing. Rather, it lends more to sorrow. The Epistle isn’t much different. We are urged to abstain from the passions of our flesh as sojourners and exiles. We hear that people will speak ill of us for being Christian and we have suffering and sorrow to look forward to for trusting in God.

In the Gospel, we find ourselves again in the midst of Holy Week. Actually, we will be in the Upper Room with Jesus and the disciples through the Day of Pentecost. Saints Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us the institution of the Lord’s Supper; St. John gives us more of what else occurred during that remarkable Passover Meal. At or near the end of the meal, Jesus says to the remaining disciples, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”

Jesus is speaking of his crucifixion and death. Yes, even in the season of Easter, the death of Jesus is prominent. He had spoken of it many times before. He had predicted it and plainly told his disciples that he must die and rise. But they did not put it together. They see what Jesus does and hear what he says in the Upper Room on that Holy Thursday, yet they are still confounded by it. They ask each other, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?”

Jesus knows they want to ask him about this. He knows they want more information, more understanding. And so, he says to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” He keeps going, and as he does, I am sure that the disciples grow in confusion. For they are not able to understand what is going on that side of the cross.

But Jesus knows exactly what is going on and what is about to happen. He is about to be handed over into the hands of sinful men. He is about to be put through a farce of a trial and be crucified. He knows that his beloved disciples will scatter and mourn. He knows they will be full of sorrow. And he knows that those who perpetrate all this will be full of joy. They will think they have won and defeated Jesus.

Yet after a little while, they will see Jesus again. Then their sorrow will turn to joy. Of course, this is exactly what happens. We have seen this through the first half of our Easter season. Did you realize we are already at its midpoint? So far, with the disciples, we have rejoiced in Christ’s resurrection. Heard the peace that he brings. Heard what it means for Jesus to be our Good Shepherd.

But in another little while, the disciples will again, in a sense, be separated from Jesus. We are quickly approaching The Ascension of our Lord. It isn’t that he leaves them or abandons them; they just won’t see him as they have the past three years. And though this will also be a sad time for them, it is also a time for joy. For on Pentecost, the promised Helper will come upon the Apostles. They will boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the world will be turned upside down. And through them, the Lord will grow his Church.

For this reason, we have much to rejoice about. Christ is risen from the dead. Death is defeated. Our sins are paid for – we are forgiven. Through baptism, our old man has been drowned and we have been born from above. The good work the Holy Spirit has begun in us is being and continues to be worked.

The enemy has been defeated, but he still howls and prowls among us. The victory is won, but the battle is not over. And because of this, despite all we rejoice about, we still lament and have sorrow. Our flesh, made new in baptism, still pulls us in every direction but the direction we ought to go. The world acts as if Jesus were still dead or as if it just doesn’t care what he said and did. And that’s if they think he was ever here at all. Many hold open animosity toward Jesus and his Christians.

This is why our Lord tells us we will weep and lament. We will and must suffer just as Jesus did. Just as his apostles did. None of us will be spared our own cross, however different it may be for each one of us.

Even still, in our weeping and lamenting of our sins and whatever our enemy throws at us, we are comforted by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as he said he would be, he was taken from the disciples for a time. Then, after that little while, he rose, and they saw him. And even though they had failed him, he was not angry with them. For he had died for them. He came to them in mercy and with love for those who were most precious to him. Upon them, he gave his peace and established the Office of the Keys.

Like the disciples, we fail our Lord. We fear many things in this life: the loss of health, sickness, a lack of financial stability. We may fear being ridiculed or being called out for what we believe and confess. In these times, we are tempted to fear, love, and trust in a god that is not in the God, our Heavenly Father who sent his Only Begotten Son and lives in us through his Holy Spirit. We sometimes are scattered like sheep.

In these times, godly sorrow comes upon us. Such sorrow hurts our conscience as we recognize our transgression of God’s good and eternal Law. We realize it is our sin that caused Jesus to ascend the cross. And so, we turn to him and beg his mercy. We plead that the Father would cover us in the blood of his Son, healing us and washing us clean of our iniquity.

Such godly sorrow brings repentance, which brings joy. For in the absolution we hear God through the voice of the pastor. He forgives you. He gives you his peace, his salvation. And he even lets you see him, though it is dimly and hidden within the Sacrament. You know him there where you see his Body in the bread and Blood in the wine. One day we shall see him fully in his resurrected and glorified body. We will see him with our own eyes in our own resurrected and glorified bodies, as will all the world. It is then that your joy will be full. It is there that our anguish and sorrow will be no more. There, where no one can ever take our joy again.

O Lord have mercy on us! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Rev. Brent Keller 
Peace Lutheran Church 
Alcester, SD  

©2020 Brent Keller. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com.