“DOUBT NOT; THE
NAZARENE LIVE AND LOVES”
Saint John 20. 19-31
QUASIMODOGENITI: 27 April Anno Domini 2014
Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of
Augsburg Lutheran Church
Fr. J. William Watson SSP
In The Name of + Jesus
Today is Quasimodogeniti—the 1st Sunday after Easter. Today is
the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, both of His first appearance in the
upper room to His 10 Apostles (Judas is dead and Thomas is absent) and of His
second upper room appearance the following Sunday (today’s Sunday) to Saint
Thomas, Didymus—the “twin;” your twin!
Today is the (approximately) 1,984th
time Quasimodogeniti has been, or
could have been commemorated—and will continue to be commemorated until The
Lord returns in glory. Hallelujah!
Today is also the celebration of the 10th
anniversary of the parish of Our Lord’s Church, Augsburg Lutheran Church!
Hallelujah!
A congregation which is filled with
Thomas’s given new life and love just like that most famous doubter; that most
famous believer: simul iustus et peccator
as Luther informs us—simultaneously sinners and saints.
There was a woman, not on the first day of
the week, who came where the physical doors were open—to a pastor’s office—because
doors were being shut in other locations to Our Lord’s reverential, sacramental,
and liturgical gifts. That pastor was
also having doors shut on a Lutheran ministry wherein a genuine Lutheran, i.e. an evangelical and catholic ethos
was being rejected. Not the germs of a spiritually elite or inward looking
repristination, but rather the seeds of a new congregation were probably
planted that very day. The Lord works in mysterious ways to be sure.
The Apostles were huddled away in “fear of the Jews” more than simply
being assembled by shared and bold conviction and confession. That’s what sin does—it causes fear; whether
due to a raging lake which is instantly calmed, a dead 12 year old daughter, an
unnatural draught of fish, or most appropriately (as per Esaias’ vision) the
realization that one is in the true Presence of The Lord and has only filthy
rags and unclean lips!
The only thing which banishes fear and
brings peace and true joy isn’t a “thing”
but a person: The God/Man Christ Jesus. No matter what the church calendar day
says, no matter which Saint’s Day or festival designation…or local parochial
celebration, every day is the Feast of Crucified and Risen Savior who takes
away the sin of the world! And it is only by Jesus taking away sin and your sins
that there is any peace. “Peace be unto you” He said the 10 in
the upper room. And what was that peace? Was it peace so that the Jews would
never persecute them; that their lives would be tranquil and sedentary—enjoying
wives, children and grand-kids; that they would be admired and treated with
honors and accolades from ecclesiastical supervisors and the general populace?
No! Christ brought them supernal, supernatural, cosmic, i.e. REAL and TRUE peace with God—the Holy Trinity, Father, Son +
and Holy Ghost. Christ brought them heaven on earth as a foretaste to everlasting
Heaven and its eternal communion of Glory.
And how
did the Christ of God deliver that peace?
That peace was bought with a price, a worked-filled, commandment
keeping, suffering and dying atoning sacrificial deposit that only Christ
won. He won and purchased peace for the
Apostles and for their flocks—all of you—on Good Friday. But He delivered that
Peace to them in person: IN PERSON—by being with them with His actual Word “Peace be unto you” and with His actual
Body and Blood!
Christ died for them and their sins. Christ
died for you and your sins. Christ is risen and is not dead! Another paradox of
Peace which stands beside the paradoxes of 3
in 1, the Two-Natures of the Personal
Union, the Mystery of the Sacrament,
and Genesis 1 to be sure. Easter and Low Sunday (today) is about JESUS
LIVES. But Jesus lives not for Himself, He is the God/Man, He lives for you. He
has resurrected His flesh and blood so that you will receive the faith to
believe that your flesh and blood, your body and soul will rise from the earth
on the Last Day to live forever with Him.
With Him—that is good news. With the Saints—that is good news.
And what does
He do? Does He give them a Francis Pieper lecture on soteriology; does He task
them with methods of self-improvement and exercises for deeper spirituality;
does He hand them a written historical narrative and personal diary as well as
an apologetics handbook to meet all exigencies?
No. He shows them His nail prints and His pierced side and has them
touch and handle Him! He gives them
Words from His mouth and He gives them His Body and His Blood! Hallelujah!
This is church, this is salvation, this is forgiveness, and this is
Peace!
Why was Thomas absent that first Easter
Eve? Does it really matter? No. He was absent due to sin—either sin or a
particular sin. It’s the same with all of you. Either one is in the room with
the Risen Christ or one is not. If one is not, it’s due to sin. There are no
excuses in this way of looking at reality because sin is original and actual.
Sickness, disease, job conflicts, over-emphasis on your kid’s sports (a
Breaking of the 1st Commandment to be sure), old-age, shut-in
status, agoraphobia, or just being
mad at the pastor or in a feud with a fellow parishioner…if any of these keep
you from gathering with Peter, James and John (all sinners too for that matter),
with the angels and archangels, than you are a sinner like Thomas. If one is
not at font, pulpit and altar then there’s no Jesus for you.
But Thomas too was saved…just like you. The
Lord had spoken “I kept them in Thy Name;
those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost.” [Jn.
17.12] And again: “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” [Jn. 15.16] What
was true for the Apostle, the Shepherd, is true for the flock, for Paul speaks
about you: “According as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His
will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the beloved.” [Eph. 1.4-6]
Elected with Saint Thomas from before the
beginning to be saved and preserved by the Work of The Blessed Son. Redeemed at a place, a time: Calvary, the
Crucifix, but delivered that faith in the “Upper Room” of His Kingdom of Grace—the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church in time: Holy + Baptism, Holy Word of Absolution, and Holy
Supper. He has truly made you acceptable
to the Father “in the beloved,” for
it is only IN CHRIST and IN His True Body and True Blood that forgiveness and
life is found. Touch and handle His
flesh as did Thomas on the following Sunday of Grace when Jesus returned for
the one lost lamb. Be carried on the back of the Good Shepherd so that you too
can “reach hither thy hand, and thrust
it into [His] side; and be not faithless, but believing.”
It was the Lord Christ Who formed Augsburg
Lutheran Church a decade ago; Who created it as our Augustana, Article 7 says
around His True Presence: “the Church is
the congregation of Saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the
Sacraments are rightly administered.”
Or as Johann Mentzer put it so beautifully in 1726: “O Lord, let this Thy little
flock, Thy Name alone confessing; continue in Thy loving care, true unity
possessing. Thy Sacraments, O Lord, and thy saving Word; to us e’er pure
retain. Grant that they may remain our only strength and comfort.” [TLH 477
s. 2]
Thank you Dear Lord for all Thy gifts; for
Thy faithful Saints past, present, and future in this parish, as well as
friends of the congregation (known and anonymous); for Thy bountiful generosity
in 1st Article gifts and care; and for Thy Grace in giving us faith
to receive Thy salvation, forgiveness, life and peace. Through Jesus Christ: “[Our] LORD, and [our] God.”
In The Name of
The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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