(Argh! Wrote this once and lost all my work. We'll see if I can do it as well again.)

This bit of church history has always interested me. The early church was growing faster than they could handle it, a problem we would love to have. And the disciples make a remarkable statement...

On April 6 and 13 the first lesson is drawn from the 2nd chapter of Acts, the events of Pentecost, Peter's sermon and its response. I confess to being a bit puzzled, wondering why this lesson appears in the first few Sundays after Easter instead of waiting until after Pentecost. In the first selection Peter confronts the crowd with their guilt in Jesus' death and the promise of forgiveness, and 3.000 come to faith. In the 2nd selection we see the response of these new believers who devote themselves to learning and growing in faith together.

I have often said, "One sermon won't turn everything around."...

It's hard to keep our timeframe straight in the Sundays after Easter. This Sunday's Gospel lesson takes place still on Easter Sunday itself. Although we are 2 full weeks after Easter, these 2 disciples on their way to Emmaus are only a few hours from the first news of the resurrection. For us the Easter decorations are all put away and we're starting to shift our thoughts to summer vacation plans. But as these 2 men walked they were still very much overcome by Good Friday...

(I wrote a post for Saturday, but it didn't appear when I expected it. So here's another one. Perhaps we'll end up with two.)

It's very quiet at church today. I'm here to work on my Easter sermon, and I can't help but think about the disciples and the women who loved and followed Jesus on this day. Did they sleep that Friday night? Did they awaken on Saturday, the Sabbath, and go to the synagogue?...

A day of worship. A day of rest. A day on which Jesus' disciples would have met, perhaps at a synagogue, as was Jesus' regular practice. Would they want to talk or not? What would there be to say?

I often compare our lives to that Saturday. We can easily see the tragedy, the death or failure of things in our lives. Sickness is quite visible. And sin. But we cannot so easily see the Easter Sunday that hasn't yet arrived. Worse yet, we often cannot even see the Easter that we know has already come!

It's all over. The crowds are dispersing. All three of the criminals executed are dead now, their legs having been broken so that they died of suffocation, unable to lift themselves up to exhale. Except for one. They didn't break the legs of the one in the center. Evidently he was already dead when they came for him.

A couple of his friends are there now...

I'm writing this just before our noon hour service. It was at noon that Mark says the sun was darkened. It remained dark until 3pm.

Jesus was brought to Pilate at about 6am. The crowds filled the courtyard while Pilate examined Jesus. You're familiar with the scene. Pilate's attempts to release Jesus - his strategy for escaping the issue by sending Jesus to Herod - his effort to substitute Barabbas - and the final trap in which he found himself, crucify Jesus or face a riot and a possible delegation to Rome to call for his removal. Pilate surrendered Jesus, who was beaten severely and then marched to the cross...

Did you sleep well last night? Like the people of Jerusalem, when we arise in the morning we find that Jesus did not sleep at all.

After the supper with his disciples, they sang a hymn (probably Psalm 118) and left the city. They walked through the dark and quiet streets and out the city gate, across the valley and up the slopes of the Mount of Olives until they came to the Garden of the Oil Press, the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed and prayed, while his disciples dozed and dozed...

We've already spent 6 weeks talking about each piece of the meal (in our Wednesday evening services). What about earlier?

Jesus awoke on Thursday morning. He knew he would not sleep again until his death on Friday afternoon. Arising and eating with his disciples, he gave them assignments for the day. Prepare for the Seder meal in the evening...

There is no record of anything Jesus did on Wednesday. After the busy events of Tuesday, the city would still be buzzing with conversation about all he had said and done. Jesus' enemies were probably posted at the gates, watching for him. Many people were wondering where he was, and what he would do next.

But Jesus waited. The Bible does not tell us, but I suspect that Jesus spent the day in prayer. When he had time available, the opportunity to get away from the press of healing and teaching, Jesus would usually go off somewhere quiet to pray.

Do you? In the middle of this busy week in your life, do you rest by taking an hour for prayer? Or do you rent a movie or read a novel? I confess I am much more likely to waste the time than to use it well. Oh, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with movies and books and other ways of resting - but how much time do we spend in prayer?

Jesus was preparing for Thursday. While all his enemies are poised and waiting, while they are recruiting people to testify against him and arranging for their friends to be gathered for an early trial, to stage a near riot outside the governor's residence if they have a chance to bring Jesus to trial, while all of this is going on, Jesus is praying and waiting. Tomorrow his disciples will enter the city quietly to prepare the Seder meal in a secret place.

A lot happened on Tuesday, didn't it? Amidst all this, with the talk about the beauty of the Temple and about its destruction, the debates with Jesus' enemies, and so on, Jesus also told the story of the Ten Virgins. He used the illustration of the servants given different amounts of money to invest for the master who will soon return. He taught about the judgment, and about how the Lord would separate the sheep from the goats.

Apparently Jesus ended this busy Tuesday with a dinner at the home of "Simon the Leper." It was here that a woman poured an expensive perfume on Jesus' head. She was, as Jesus said, preparing his body for burial.

All this time an important meeting was being held among Jesus' enemies. They had often plotted to kill him, but had always been unable. The crowds that surround Jesus would cause a riot. But this time they have an advantage. Judas left the dinner at Simon's house and met with the Pharisees. "How much will you give me if I deliver him to you?"

(Matthew 21, Mark 11)

The withered fig tree serves as an illustration a second time, this time as they enter the city again on Tuesday and they find it dried up. It is a shadow of the events of the day ahead.

Jesus makes his way to the Temple once again, and today he is greeted by an official delegation, no doubt they were recruited the day before and given their assignment, and now they have been waiting for Jesus to show up. They represent all 3 of the ruling classes of Israel which made up the Sanhedrin, the priests, the scribes, and the elders. Surrounding Jesus, they ask him, "By what authority do you do these things?"...

(Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19 - for the chronology of this week, I am relying on "The Life of Christ" by Adam Fahling, CPH 1936)

The Gospel writers do not break the events of each day into an hourly record. In fact, they blur things together at times so that it's hard to be sure which things happened on which days. The only way to make it clearer is to compare all 4 accounts carefully to find those places where the authors are quite specific. Matthew blends Sunday and Monday, making it sound as if Jesus cleared the Temple on Palm Sunday. But Mark (11:11) has greater detail. The events of Palm Sunday were so lengthy, the parade...

I've got a bone to pick with the ILCW. That's the InterLutheran Commission on Worship, they devised the current lectionary (modified a bit by our own church body) that is used by most Lutheran congregations. There are lots of lectionaries - lists of chosen Scriptures to be read on certain days. Did you know that?...

(Pardon me for not posting on these lessons earlier in the week. It has been a difficult week for a number of reasons.)

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus..." Wow, not asking a small thing, is he?

Of course, Paul is not asking us to give up as much as Jesus gave up. Jesus was "in very nature God"...

I've preached on this chapter for numerous funerals. I've read it in who knows how many funeral homes and hospital rooms and by many death beds. I've focused on Jesus' deliberate delay when he knew that Lazarus was sick - and what that means for us when Jesus doesn't *seem* to hear our prayer. (Note that it says "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." And yet he delayed.)

I've talked about...

What can you do when you read these words... and they don't lift you up?

Over the years I have read these verses hundreds of times. I've pointed others to them time and time again. Following Paul's desperate cry in chapter 7, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?" they are are very powerful words. But the other day, in weariness and discouragement, I read these words and I groaned. "I don't feel like being encouraged. Just let me sulk here."...

I've written or spoken on this text numerous times, and often I've made the comparison with the "Who's On First" routine that Abbot and Costello made famous. It's an apt comparison, but let's look at these events through a different lens.

"They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind..." 'They' in this case must be the neighbors. But why would they take the man to the Pharisees? It's a little hard to believe that they were really outraged that he had been healed on the Sabbath...

I've only played paintball once. (Although I'd like to do it again.) I was visiting my family and my younger brother had to leave to attend a little party that the guys at our family business were giving. One of the employees was getting married, and the guys in the shop were all taking the groom out to play paintball as a bachelor party.

Here's how it worked...

I know - I'm way behind. I'd just skip the Gospel lesson and move on to the readings for Lent 4, but I can't bring myself to do it. There are too many wonderful things to think about. Of course, that's true of almost all the things we do in the Lord's service, which is probably why I'm so often behind.

Thirst. All 3 of the lessons for this coming Sunday about thirst. The Old Testament in which the people are complaining that they're going to die - the epistle in which Paul reflects on the longsuffering of the people of God - and now the Gospel in which this woman, who doesn't even clearly see or confess her own thirst, is really in desperate need of a drink...

Just in the Gospel of John (21 chapters) Jesus says "I tell you the truth" 26 times. A more literal translation from Greek might be, "Amen, Amen I say to you." He says it 3 times just in these 17 verses, and notice that each time he says it he is already *doubling* the statement. It's not just "truly", but "truly, truly..."

Why all the emphasis on truth?

Have you ever noticed how the appointed lessons sometimes skip a few verses? Usually, the purpose is to keep them to an understandable length - one that people can listen to - and to avoid parts that might be too confusing. (It's hard to explain difficult concepts in a sermon since the listener is seldom taking notes or consulting the Bible for him/herself.)

But it might be interesting for us to take a peek at the part that was left out...

How long is 40 days?

There are a couple of ways to think about that question. What has happened in your life in the last 40 days? Even if you consider yourself pretty boring, I'd be willing to bet that a lot has happened in that time. Forty days ago you were still doing Christmas shopping. The primary elections had many more candidates 40 days ago. The stock market looks very different now than it did 40 days ago. If you were on vacation for 40 days - how would that length of time feel differently than if you were in the hospital for the last 40 days - or waiting for test results for 40 days - or facing an audit by the IRS for the last 40 days?

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man..." These verses are an echo of the Old Testament lesson, aren't they? And if the OT lesson is just a legend, a fable, a story told to illustrate a point, then these words loose much of their power too. We worried yesterday that the story of The Fall is too often taken lightly. It is written in a summary fashion, without living characters that would make it feel more real to us. Paul's letter may suffer from a similar problem, at least for some people...

I just finished reading the latest issue of The Lutheran Witness which is all about evangelism - being Ablaze! to share our faith in Jesus. And then I turn to this text where Jesus says, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

What's up with that?...

What do people do when they manage to get close to a famous person? Whether it's a movie star, a musician, or a politician, they try to get that person's autograph. Better yet, they want their picture taken with the star. I know a man who has many pictures on his family room wall of himself with famous people. Did you notice that Peter doesn't do that?...

Last Sunday was a "mountaintop experience" for our congregation. We had a big service to celebrate our 100th anniversary. Hundreds of people were there. The choir was big - reinforced with students from Concordia. The brass players trumpeted God's glory and the handbell ringers rang out his praises. It was great. But... how much difference do you think it made by Monday?

Many people (and many churches) seek to have "mountaintop experiences" all the time. How much difference would it make to you if God actually took you up on a mountain and revealed himself to you?...

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Can you think of a more "uncool" sermon theme? I think it's a mistake for us to assume that Jesus' words were more acceptable in the first century than they are now. Why would they be? Although people did wear robe-like clothing, they were probably no more likely to stand on street corners and call their neighbors to repentance than we are today.

Preachers of repentance seem weird. Why?...

After much prayer - thought - consultation - and debate, I've decided to continue with the blog, but in a new direction. Only 5 people responded to the survey. Only a dozen or so, as far as I can tell, have been reading the blog. And I was just about ready to give it up. One thing stopped me. (Oh Lord, don't let it be me ego deceiving me.) Some people who read the Advent devotions wrote to me to express their wish that I would continue writing.

Here's the thing. No publisher is asking me to write anything. I got to write the Lutheran Hour Advent devotions this once because a friend of mine happened to be in charge of them. So I don't hear any calling to a wonderful book-writing career. But... I have enjoyed writing these posts. And there are some people who would like to read more. So... with trepidation, I will start up again.

New rules, however. Rather than write about the SPOTS devotions, I'm going to try to work further ahead. I plan to write a few posts a week about the upcoming Sunday lessons for TWO Sundays ahead. That serves two purposes. 1) Even if no one else is reading this, it will help me to be more prepared for preaching. And 2) just in case some of my brother pastors find this useful (and I guess you never know), it might be a way to help others bring new ideas into their sermons. Also, if you are following the SPOTS it will be the same readings - just another week ahead.

I'm also going to open up comments again, but with this difference. I'll allow comments that offer other ways to look at or apply the text - but I won't get into internet debates or publish anyone's bad tempered criticism.

I'm way behind. As Karen and I read this chapter in our devotions I had many thoughts I wanted to share with you. But one thing led to another, we had to be out of town, now there is no heat in my office and my hands don't want to type. What shall I say? There is too much to write about these last verses of our last reading in this 2-year cycle.

Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" Most comments that I have read concerning this suggest that this is a sort of confession or absolution for Peter's betrayal. But it's hard to see that. Peter never confesses his failure. And Jesus does not exactly forgive him. In fact, if that is what this is intended to be, then it's sure a different idea of forgiveness than the rest of the Bible. If this is forgiveness, then it's the kind of forgiveness that requires a price, a payment, a good deed to make up for your sins. No, that's not what's happening here.

So, what is it? I think it is Peter's own "Great Commission." It is a description of what ministry is really all about. Back when Jesus said, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church..." it may have seemed like a glorious thing - the kind of ministry that is expressed in massive cathedrals and impressive vestments - as if Peter were to be a Pope. But that is not what Jesus wants for him.

If you love me, "feed my sheep."

I think of Jesus' words when I enter a nursing home. "When you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where to you do not want to go." In Peter's case this would be his crucifixion (according to tradition), but in our case it may be to a care facility where we believe our life has no purpose. And yet in both places Jesus says, "feed my sheep."

My wife's Uncle Adolph was a wonderful example of this. When he was moved to a nursing home the last year of his life, he played the piano for other residents, leading them in hymns. He was never a great musician, but here his gifts were welcomed. He taught Bible classes, and every day he walked down the halls to visit and encourage others.

No, he did not want to be dressed by someone else, or taken from his own home. But he loved his Lord, and so he fed his sheep.

Where is God calling you today? This new year that begins tonight? Perhaps not to something glorious - but to something great in his eyes. Feed his sheep.

For many centuries people were suspicious of anything "new." It was older and more time-tested things that were more highly valued and trusted. New ways of doing things were suspect.

Of course, that was a foolish attitude in ma