Tag: Resurrection

November 2019

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“You have raised up for us a mighty Savior.” Luke 1:69

Dear Redeemer Family:
In this final month of the church year, we are presented with Luke’s understanding of ends and beginnings, of death and resurrection, thus providing us with the opportunity to think anew about life together under the cross and empty tomb of Jesus.

Lutherans hold a particular understanding of our endings and beginnings. Martin Luther understood there to be two kinds of death, a little death and a big death. The big death is what occurs in the waters of baptism when the sinful self and the power of sin, death and the devil are drowned; they no longer have the last word or ultimate power over us. Because Jesus has died and is raised; and because in the waters of baptism we are joined to him in his death and resurrection; we face the end with anticipation. Though we are sinful, in the waters of baptism we are also given a new identity:
a saint, a child of God, one forgiven, loved, saved through the love of God in Jesus Christ. There is reason to celebrate the end; there, in the end, is a new beginning. There, in the end, is Jesus.

The little death, for Luther, is the physical death, when there is no more breath in our bodies or life in our limbs. This death tends to be the one that engenders fear, the one in which tears are shed for what is lost, for what will no longer be. When a physical death comes decades before it should have, those left to mourn experience a mix of emotions. While, on the one hand, the faithful know that this dear person was a child of God, this child of God is no longer physically here with us. For that we grieve. Years ago, in his book The Denial of Death, (it won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1979) Ernest Becker emphasized the cultural fascination not with death itself but with denying its presence, its impact on our lives. Those whose loved ones have died, or are facing an untimely diagnosis of their own that will eventually lead to death, know the struggle of the end in Christian faith. Though resurrection is a real and present reality, the sting of the end is no less real.

At the end of this season, Christ the King, we find Jesus on the cross between two who are dying. In pain and alone, those on either side of him engage him in conversation. On the one side is someone who wants Jesus to avoid the cross and to help them avoid the cross as well. (The denial of death, indeed!) On the other side is someone who recognizes the situation for what it is and realizes Jesus for who he is. The person asks Jesus to “remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

This is an honest cry, a lament, in which despair and hope are hurled at Jesus on the cross. There is no sugarcoating the situation of the person hanging next to Jesus; while the criminal recognizes that “we are getting what we deserve,” there is, somewhere from within, a deep and abiding sense of hope. In view of Jesus on the cross, all the denials end; all that is left is hope. “Today you will be with me in Paradise” is the reply he receives. No denial, but tremendous words of hope.

In Christ, Pastor Rose

August 2017

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.” Acts 2:20

 
Dear Redeemer Family:
I thought that the above text from Acts, where Peter is actually quoting the Prophet Joel’s prophecy in his Pentecost Day sermon, was appropriate for this month.
On the 21st of this month we will be having what the news is calling, “The Great American Eclipse.” I find that a little odd. Eclipses happen all of the time, although most of them occur over the oceans. So, most people don’t get to view them. And although this one is covering virtually the length of our nation, from Oregon to the Carolinas, it is hard to call it the “American Eclipse” because we didn’t do anything to cause it. It is just taking place over our territory. Do we not hold biblically that it is “God who put the heavenly bodies in the sky, and set them in their courses.” Maybe we should call it “God’s Great Eclipse,” or “The Divine Eclipse;” just pondering on this one a bit.

 

The eclipse is anticipated to be a huge event. Estimates, as of this writing, are that there may be over one million extra people coming to the State of Missouri to visit it, with an estimated 379,000 (as of last week) in Jefferson County, and up to 50,000 extra viewers in De Soto alone. This, of course, presents a number of logistical problems for we who are residents. I am telling people to buy all of their groceries and other supplies (this is now including gasoline) about four or five days ahead of the eclipse. I anticipate lots of shortages locally with all of these people here.

 

On the other hand, this should be a magnificent occurrence. I have never seen a total solar eclipse. I have seen partials. And I have seen total lunar eclipses (“the moon turning to blood” in the above text is true). I have been told by some that if you don’t believe in God, witnessing a solar eclipse changes your mind. It is a display full of grandeur. Let us hope that it is a clear day.
But St. Peter, and the Prophet Joel before him, is speaking of “The Lord’s great and glorious day.” This can be interpreted several ways; the birth of Christ, or the Resurrection of Christ, or the Crucifixion is another possible. If we go with the birth of Christ, the only witnesses to the Incarnation, besides Jesus’ parents, were some shepherds; and some wise men who got there much later. The Resurrection is another possible “great and glorious day” of the Lord. But, there weren’t many witnesses of that day either; Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the other disciples. However, when we look at the texts for the Crucifixion, we are told, “It was about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed” (Luke’s account). Doesn’t that describe a solar eclipse? It was there, on the cross, that “The Lord’s great and glorious day” took place. Surrounded by two outlaws, some Roman soldiers, his mother, Mary Magdalene, St. John, and some other lookers on, Jesus died for the sins of the world. Let us also remember that on August 21st at about 1pm.
In Christ, Pastor Rose