The Lord be with you all!
He Is Risen! Alleluia!
If you haven't seen this past Sunday's live stream, you can take it in above. Although the sound is "bearable", we promise that it will be better this COMING week. If you care to just READ the sermon, I have it below, or you can download a pdf HERE!
THIS COMING SUNDAY'S info:
YouTube worship stream is here: https://youtu.be/0wvA2twPF3o
Bible Study on 1st Peter is here:
https://zoom.us/j/91162299875?pwd=bmtqVkxKeGs1RUtNUW1vY3NQTzloQT09 Meeting ID: 911 6229 9875 Password: 015519
LOOKING FORWARD TO SUNDAY, MAY 10TH!!!!
CONFIRMATION/ GOOD SHEPHERD/ MOTHERS DAY SUNDAY!
Please note that although we will be doing live streams ONLY through May 3rd, we will be live streaming a PARKING LOT SERVICE on SUNDAY, MAY 10th! It will be a very special service - so plan on joining us at our regular 9am time slot! Please pray for our Confirmands Sophia and Maya!
PRAYER REQUESTS: If you have prayer requests for the church to be included in the church bulletin and distributed to the congregation by mail, please go to the home page of this site and you will see the Prayer Request Button!
MONUMENTAL MOMENTS! Sermon
2nd Sunday of Easter
Rev. Kristian Bjornstad, Vacancy pastor, Good Shepherd
Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Kevin Babington, an Olympian, was having a remarkable career as a rider for hire in the equestrian sport of show jumping, in which horses leap fences set up over a winding course. According to the NYTimes, Babington, 51, would take clients' horses and increase their value — sometimes into the millions — by riding them to top finishes. Last July, he swept the top three places at a Grand Prix event on three different horses. At that highest level of show jumping, it was a rare feat.
In busy times, he traveled for about half the year to compete in horse shows or to give jumping clinics, where he signed autographs and stopped to offer advice to even the youngest riders. He rode on his clients' private jets and enjoyed Champagne toasts after jumping horses to victory.
But last August, on what otherwise was a most normal day, the horse Babington was riding decided, for whatever reason, he couldn't make a jump. For whatever reason, instead of going up and over the wall, the horse crashed right into it. And for whatever reason, the man who was always in control of himself and his horse went straight over the head of the horse, over the wall, and crash landed on his head. Today, there are some days that he can move his fingers, but other days he cannot. Today he coaches riders from a wheel chair, his life completely changed in a monumental moment.
Monumental moments can be personal in scope, but they can also affect vast swaths of humanity.
We might understand Pearl Harbor as a monumental moment.
Or 9/11's world trade towers coming tumbling down.
And certainly we might count the present time we are living through as a monumental moment. This totally unseen and unexpected dawn of the coronavirus age is a monumental moment for us. We have no idea what it ahead of us. The only thing that we all know is that the future is going to be vastly different than it was before.
There are monumental moments aplenty. The problem with monumental moments as we know them is that they are most often profoundly negative experiences.
Perhaps there are a few monumental moments that we experience in a positive way. Giving birth to a child and welcoming them into our families is one of those times. We are just in awe of how our lives are turned upside down and forever changed at the birth of our children. Perhaps some of you might be thinking of getting married might be a monumental moment as well. But I am not categorizing a wedding to be a monumental moment. A wedding is thrillingly important, of course, but practically speaking our lives are not dramatically changed in the moment. Weddings are all planned out and we have all kinds of wonderful expectations of them.
The reality is that most monumental moments are horrific events. In an instant our lives are changed and we are never the same.
We live in fear of the monumental moment. We would dread the afternoon the police officer knocks on our door and asks... "are you the parents of a...? There has been an accident..." We cry out in great anguish the day the tornado smashes our house or the brush fire would burn it down.
But what if there was a different kind of monumental moment? What if there was one that took your breath away and in an instant changed the entire course of your life - in a positive way? What if that monumental moment was good beyond our wildest comprehension? What if it was so perfectly true? What if it was... beautiful?
Can we imagine such a thing? Could it ever happen to you? Could it happen to me?
In fact there is such a moment. There is a good, true, and beautiful moment that turns every other horrible monumental moment upside down. There is a monumental moment that most assuredly has changed your life forever, like you have not yet ever imagined.
Are you confused? Have you never experienced that moment before? Actually, the monumental moment that I am speaking of is the moment that has its deepest roots in the ancient cosmos, in the heavens itself, in the very mind of God. Yes, it quite some years ago. It happened in a garden. It happened at a tomb outside of Jerusalem on the other side of the world from us. It was a singular and supernatural moment - but also a moment that is not bound by space and time. It is most assuredly a moment that is happening right now in our lives today, in the lives of people the whole world around! It is most assuredly happening at this very moment as we all cry out:
HE IS RISEN!
HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!
The earliest reports of this monumental moment of Jesus Christ risen from the dead and changing lives upside down for the good - are recorded, in part, in our Gospel lesson today.
There are very few of readings of scripture, as our lectionary presents them, that are read every year on the same Sunday. But the account of Jesus appearing to that doubting disciple Thomas is one of them. It is read the first Sunday after Easter every year. It is dearly beloved by all. For good reason! We all struggle in our lives with our trust and belief in Jesus Christ. We all can put ourselves in Thomas' shoes. We all take encouragement in his historic and seismic confession of faith.
The first part of our Gospel gives account of Jesus appearing to his disciples the first time. The monumental moment of the resurrection was crashing in on the lives of God's people. Yes, Jesus himself had been raised from the dead, sealing His victory over sin, death, and the grave. But now that truth was being applied to real souls - and lives were being changed forever. The tidal wave of joy and transformation was now starting to crash in on the shores of the whole world. The fire was kindled. The wind was blowing. The heavens were opening. The shout was going up for the first time: HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Let us pick up at verse 24. Listen closely as we hear how Jesus comes back to seek out and save a lost sinner, a doubting Thomas... listen as we can know how Jesus cares for even us, doubting Thomas' all:
24Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
26Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Can we imagine that scene as it really was? Can we imagine the monumental moment of Christ entering that locked room, dispelling the fear, announcing everlasting peace, looking into the eyes of his beloved disciples... can we be thunderstruck with Thomas as he comes face to face with the man who once was dead, whose deathly wounds were visible, but yet had been glorified? Did Thomas actually need to put his hands into the wounds of Christ? Would you have needed to? Would you have desired to? How would your heart have melted? How would your mind have frozen in despairing sorrow at your faithlessness, and yet at the same time flown to heights of joy and heaven never experienced before?
And then to fall on your knees at the king of the universe and somehow find the most profound five words ever said: "My Lord and my God." How could he ever stand again? How can we ever stand again?
Yes, indeed, St. John concludes this account with a summary of what this is truly all about, and the final aim of heaven's glory in Jesus Christ:
30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
And who is that "you" that John is speaking of? Who is the 'you" that is to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Who is the "you" that, by believing, is to have life in the name of Jesus?
The "you" that John is speaking about is YOU! You are to believe on the name of Jesus! You too are to have life in His name! You too are to receive the peace of God, the forgiveness of sins, the life everlasting! You too are to be the precious child of God in Christ Jesus! You are to rest secure in promises of God in the midst of many trials and stormy days here on this sinful world!
With the moment of Jesus' appearance still fresh in his mind, his heart still shaking in the thrill of it many years later, St. Peter dipped his pen in the ink and wrote his epistle the church in asia. His hand, moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote his blessed doxology in our Epistle today:
"8Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
Notice, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the monumental moment of Christ's death and resurrection is not just something that happened two millenia ago. It is a monumental moment that is still going on in your life and in mine. Notice that we shout "He IS risen!" It is in the present tense! And when St. Peter writes his epistle many years after the resurrection, he also speaks of it in a present tense way: You ARE rejoicing with great joy and ARE obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls! If you come to Bible Study where we take 1 Peter apart word by word we will see that our faith in Jesus is a LIVING HOPE! The resurrection is life changing - and we are living in it, right at this moment. We are living in an everlasting, good, true, and beautiful MONUMENTAL MOMENT.
The monumental moment of Kevin Babington? It will pass away.
The monumental moments of 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and even our present day coronavirus... they all will pass away!
But just think of it! The monumental moment of the disciples and St. Thomas! It will never pass away! It lasts forever! This is the very same moment that lifts us to heaven here this morning, even scattered in our exiles at home! Even in the midst of all our sins and sorrows, we rejoice with all our hearts and sing and shout:
He is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Alleluia! Amen!
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