​2nd Sunday of Easter – C                                                                               LSB #’s 384, 525, 469
Text – Revelation 1:8
 
“I am the Alpha & the Omega,” says Yahweh, the only God, the one who is & who was & who is coming, the Almighty.
 
THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA
 
 
There were bombings at Christian churches on Easter morning, over in Sri Lanka.  Our congregation supports a missionary family in that country.  Yesterday, a woman was killed & three other people injured in a shooting at a Synagogue in CA.   Eight days ago was the 20th anniversary of the killings at Columbine High School. 
Areas of Nebraska & Iowa sustained huge amounts of damage from flooding this spring.  Looking to the international arena, Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea & Iran each have our worst interests at heart.  If you’re looking for it, there’s certainly enough bad news to go around, & bad news gets people stirred up, anxious & afraid. 
In that condition, human beings start to look for help, & normally they look in the wrong places.  Like King Saul, some look to psychics for answers.  They hope to find what the future holds, believing it’ll help to calm their fears.  It won’t be long & marijuana use will be legal in every state.  Some form of gambling is legal in 48 of our states. 
Then, you have the religious groups that say anything goes.  Don’t worry.  Be happy, but they can’t take the anxiety of sin away.  Finally, to really add anxiety to people’s lives, much of the religious world does anything but comfort us.  There’re many false teachers & preachers with nothing but a message of fire & brimstone.  Creating even more fear is their stock in trade. 
One of the chief books used for the creation of that fear is the Bible, especially the book of Revelation.  Images of the black horse of death, dragons with 7 heads & 10 horns, along with stories of the Tribulation & Armageddon,   are perfect material for scaring people back to God.  The flaw with that theory, however, is that when the book of Revelation was written, there was no need to create additional fear.  The Roman Emperors were already doing a great job, & they needed no help.  Christians were being slaughtered as common policy in the Empire, & those who held on to their faith did so out of the certainty of Christ’s love for them in any situation. 
Revelation was written for the comfort of God’s people in bloody circumstances when the world seemed to be coming to an end.  For them, there was nowhere to run & nowhere to hide.  The only way they could remain faithful to Christ under those conditions was through the patient endurance   given as a gift by the Holy Spirit. 
The book of Revelation was one means by which the Spirit bestowed His gifts.  It’s one of the most intriguing & also misunderstood books of the Bible.   Personally, I’ve found “the Alpha & the Omega” to be one of the more interesting phrases.  There’s just something about “the Alpha & the Omega” that, for me, puts into words   the essence of God. 
Yahweh is the beginning, the end,   & everything in between.   Nothing in this universe exists apart from God.   He has always been & will always be, yet He’s not beyond us.    Our minds cannot grasp Him & still, through Christ, God lives within His children to comfort them.  He is our everything.  If that’s not the Alpha & the Omega, then nothing is. 
The phrase sometimes refers to God the Father; at other times to God the Son.    In Revelation 1:8, our Heavenly Father is speaking   as He verifies the status of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord & Judge of all history, the human race & the world.  The Son’s exalted position is now to be unfolded in the prophetic message of the mysterious book of Revelation. 
The Apostle John turns around to see the voice that was speaking to him.  He finds seven golden lamp stands & among them is someone like a Son of Man.  The lamp stands are the church as they reveal the light of heaven to a world in darkness.   The one like a Son of Man is Jesus walking among the church as He dwells within it even today.  The Son is dressed in a robe reaching to His feet, draped by a golden sash.  These indicate that He is our great High Priest, interceding before the Heavenly Father on our behalf, & also that Christ is our heavenly King. 
The whiteness of His head & hair indicate authority & the honor & respect that we owe Him for rescuing us from eternal death.  His eyes blazing like fire symbolize His authority to destroy evil & purify His people.  His feet, like glowing bronze, represent strength that conquers every enemy, even death & the grave. 
The voice, like the sound of rushing waters, suggests the mighty voice of God.   The seven stars in His right hand represent all the human messengers of Christ’s Word to His church.  The sharp double-edged sword coming from His mouth indicates that Jesus will execute the judgment of God according to His Word. 
Finally, His face shining like the sun shows that the exalted Christ is the person through whom the glory & the life-giving light of God are now present.  They bring light into our world of darkness.  All of that, John perceived in an instant.  Then, seeing the exalted Christ in all His glory, he’s completely overwhelmed & unwillingly forced down as when death strikes the body. 
John could no more stand before the heavenly Christ than he could approach the sun & touch it.  However, placing His right hand upon John, Jesus tells him, “Stop being afraid.”  The Son of God is the eternal One, the Alpha & the Omega who has entered time & human history, in order to bring that same message to each of you, “Stop   being afraid.” 
Deep down, you may be feeling very alone.  You may be asking, “Where is God anyway?  Why doesn’t He solve my problems?  Doesn’t He care?”  You may feel struck down as though you are dead.    But today, on the Lord’s day, the Alpha & the Omega is reaching out to touch you & bless you with words of love & peace.  He is the First & the Last.  Jesus is our Savior & we should no longer be afraid of what the world may do to us.  Christ is the Living One.  He is God who delivers His people even from the grave.  For He was dead & behold, now He lives forever & ever!  That One, that Son of Man, is the author & perfecter of our faith, & it is He who holds the keys of death & the grave. 
From Genesis through Revelation, the message is the same.  It’s God’s powerful search for you!  He has come, is coming, & will come again.  Our security is not determined by the stars nor the angels nor the rulers of this world,   not even by ourselves.  God, who has begun a good work in us will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ. 
The theme of Revelation is the constant & abiding presence of Christ in His church.  A message that seems to come through in today’s lesson is this, “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”  
While many frightening images & events are spoken of in Revelation, Jesus comforts His church with the promise that, regardless of what happens, He will always protect & defend her, & keep her for Himself.  The climax of Revelation is the glorious return of Christ when He will gather up His followers from all of time. 
Then, He will make right all that has been wrong.  Whenever life’s troubles, what we see & hear & feel, discourage us, the message of Revelation is there to remind us that life in not always what it seems.  Evil may now appear to triumph, however, the Revelation to St. John shows that Christ, our Lord, will overcome & make all things new. 
Then, we shall be in Paradise, with the Alpha & the Omega, for all of eternity.  Amen.
 
 
Crown Him the Lord of life, Who triumphed o’er the grave   & rose victorious in the strife for those He came to save.   His glories now we sing,   Who died & rose on high,   Who died eternal life to bring,   & lives that death may die.  Amen.  LSB 525:4.  

​Easter Morning – 2019                                                                                                      LSB #457
Text – 1 Corinthians 15:20 (NET)
 
But now Christ was raised from the dead, the 1st in the harvest of those who have fallen asleep.
 
GOD’S WILL FOR THE NEW CREATION
 
 
Christ is risen!  (He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!)   As we celebrate the physical resurrection of the corpse of Jesus, the apostle Paul points us to the End of the resurrection story, to the fulfillment of God’s ultimate will & purpose for His creation:
“…In Christ all will be made alive.  But each one in his own turn: Christ, the Firstfruit; then, when He comes, those who belong to Christ.  Then the End will come…”  (1 Corinthians 15:22-24 NET)    So along with our traditional Easter greeting, we add another acclamation of the Church: Christ has died; Christ is risen; (Christ will come again!  Alleluia!)  
That’s how the resurrection story ends; that’s my future & your future.  It is what’s in store for all who belong to Jesus.  Christ has died; Christ is risen; (Christ will come again! Alleluia!)   But we’re not there yet.  
Oh, Jesus has won the victory; the ultimate sting of death & the power of the law have been removed.  The grave no longer holds terror for those baptized into the death of Jesus, & therefore also united to the physical resurrection of Jesus.  And yet, the final, ultimate victory has not happened – at least not fully.  
People who belong to Jesus still struggle with sin.   People who belong to Jesus still get into arguments.  People who belong to Jesus still get sick & eventually die.   And if there is one thing Paul wants to make perfectly clear to the Church, it is this: as long as even a single human body is still in a grave, Jesus is not done bringing the New Creation. 
Only when every gravestone is obsolete & every Christian corpse stands redeemed & restored, joined again with a redeemed & restored soul – soul & body, the way God intended it to be – only then   will we see Yahweh’s ultimate will for His creation.   Only then will the resurrection story of Jesus reach its crowning chapter.  Christ has died; Christ is risen; (Christ will come again!  Alleluia!)  But we’re not there yet, so while we’re waiting, Paul wants to clear up a couple of misunderstandings about coming back from the dead. 
Paul was writing to the church in the Greek city of Corinth.  In their mythology, everyone knew that once you die, only your soul made the trip across the River Styx into the underworld.  No bodies were allowed.  They dragged down & hindered the soul.  So it’s likely the culture of Corinth would have been very skeptical of the idea of bodily resurrection from the dead.  
One famous Greek playwright wrote: “When the dust hath drained the blood of a man, once he is slain, there is no resurrection.”  (Aeschylus, Eumenides, 647-48; ca. 458 B.C.)   Dead is dead.  Period.  End of story.   Even if some thought the soul lived on in a kind of vague afterlife, no one but no one   thought something as vulgar as a corpse had a promising future.  
Their narrow hope for a vague kind of life after death did not include a body.  And some Greek philosophers suggested there was no hope for your soul, either: when you died, there was no resurrection, no afterworld, no existence, nothing at all.  Their skepticism led to a nagging doubt that this life is all there is.   There ain’t no more. 
No wonder the church in Corinth had drifted a bit from Paul’s original message.  The Corinthians combined narrow hope & nagging doubt with the message of Jesus.  They were bringing the basic presuppositions of their culture, their theater, their philosophy & entertainment with them in to the Church.   Do you see anything like that in our culture? 
The result?  It sounds like some Corinthian Christians were suggesting we should be content with the life we have in the here & now, rather than imagining some mythological life beyond death.  Others seem to have looked forward to a happy future for their souls without regard for their rather embarrassingly physical bodies.   St. Paul said that kind of thinking is just not compatible with faith in Jesus.  What at least some of the Corinthian Christians believed isn’t the Gospel anymore.  It’s fake news, fake news about our body, fake news about our soul, fake news about our future, fake news about the Good News.  
It might make sense in the story our culture tells, but that kind of thinking does not make sense in light of the historical event of Jesus’ resurrection.  To help them see the light, almost like a programmer cranking out code, Paul takes us through a string of IF-THEN statements:
IF physical corpses are not raised   THEN Christ is not raised.     IF Jesus is not raised THEN your faith in Him is worthless.    IF your faith is worthless   THEN you are stuck with your sins, & the dead people you love are just dead.   IF you’re stuck with your sins, & dead people are just dead   THEN this religion is a lie, & Christians are pitiful, delusional suckers.  
If you don’t have the actual resurrection of the body, Paul says, then you don’t have a Savior from sin.  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead!  That is Paul’s basic message in 1 Corinthians 15!  Your faith is NOT worthless; you are NOT stuck in sin; the people you love, even if they are dead, are MORE than just a corpse; YOU have a strong & powerful HOPE.
Because Christ is risen!  (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)  And more than that, Christ has died; Christ is risen; (Christ will come again!  Alleluia!)   In fact, you have a concrete, tangible sign of that truth.  You have the resurrected body of Jesus, what Paul calls the “firstfruit” of those who have fallen asleep.  
Firstfruits are the 1st evidence of more to come, like the blossoms of spring.   We’ve begun to see them, but they’re far from finished.  In fits & starts the air has been getting warmer, but we still awoke to snow last Monday morning.    Firstfruits are only part of the whole that is still coming.  Like a SOLO that begins a symphony, the firstfruits come at the beginning, yet they also belong to the rest that is coming after.  Think of Rhapsody in Blue, the piece by George Gershwin.  It starts out with a haunting clarinet solo.  Then the piano comes in, & then the whole orchestra.  The theme you hear 1st in the clarinet gets picked up by other instruments, expanded & explored.  The solo comes 1st, but it’s part of the whole that is still coming after. 
To experience the firstfruits is to already experience what the entire harvest will be like.  Maybe you like to plant tomatoes, & you long for that very 1st red one on the vine.  The smell, the feel, the taste, the experience of that 1st ripe tomato tells you what the rest of the harvest is going to be like.  
In the OT, firstfruits are part of the prescribed offering to God.  To set them aside as holy to the LORD acknowledges the God from whom the harvest came.    Yet, it is also a statement of trust: hail or lighting or locusts or war could destroy the harvest at any moment.  To offer the firstfruits is to express your dependence on God for the rest of the harvest.  
The image of firstfruits brings all those thoughts together, & Paul says Jesus is like that – He’s the 1st evidence of more to come.  His corpse is the 1st permanent, physical, New Creation resurrection in history, & it is not going to be the last!  He is the 1st blossom, the opening solo, of the New Creation: His resurrected body is part of the New Creation ahead of all the others.  
If you want to know what the New Creation is like, look to Jesus & His living body that eats & walks & talks & loves & shares with those He loves.  He is the firstfruits offering, set aside as holy to God even as we, God’s people, depend on Him for the rest of the harvest that is still to come.  Christ’s resurrection is the 1st installment of our inheritance:
“…In Christ all will be made alive.  But each one in his own turn: Christ, the Firstfruit; then, when He comes, those who belong to Christ.  Then the End will come…”  (1 Corinthians 15:22-24 NET)   It’s clear what Paul wants us to believe, to believe firmly, without a doubt.  And it’s clear that believing firmly, without a doubt is no easier for us than for the Corinthians.  Like them, we bring the presuppositions of our own culture, our theater, our philosophy & our entertainment with us into the Church.  In our culture & in our church, we have a narrow hope. 
We tend to imagine our souls after death as the life force of Obi-Wan Kenobi & Yoda after they died, a kind of glowing version of our physical selves.  Remember how neither Yoda nor Obi-Wan left behind an embarrassing corpse after they died?  
In entertainment for young & old, we Americans seem to be content with the soul living on without a body (if it’s a family movie), or souls living on in dead bodies (if it’s a zombie movie).  We just don’t imagine something as vulgar as a corpse having much of a future.  That narrow hope for a vague kind of life-after-death-without-your-body has affected the Church.  
There’s a children’s book written by good, Christian people, intended to be read by good, Christian parents to their good, Christian children, that is all about going to heaven when you die.  You get wings like angels, you get to run & play, all is perfect & peaceful, & there’s absolutely no hint, no hope, no need for a bodily resurrection from the dead.  
The soul’s spiritual existence apart from the body is good enough for a children’s book.  And the soul’s spiritual existence apart from the body is good enough for much of our American Christian experience.  If the narrow hope typical of our culture has infiltrated the Church, then so has a nagging doubt that this life is all there is – there ain’t no more.  
That doubt arises from the skepticism seeming to characterize our age like no other.   A basic tenet of Post-Modernism, the philosophy permeating our culture, is that all our understanding of truth is shaped by our human culture, our human language, & the way our human brains work in our human bodies.  And you know Post-Moderns are right, up to a point.  
I can’t think of the world apart from the way my human brain works.  I can use only the
tools I have, whether it’s reason or emotion, faith or imagination, I have no direct, disembodied access to objective truth.  That fundamental principle – that I’m undeniably shaped by my human culture, human language, & human body – can lead to the nagging doubt that all religious claims about absolute spiritual truth are the product of a human brain, just doing what human brains do.  
So if I have no objective, disembodied access to ultimate Truth, how can I be sure any such truth exists?  That’s why the physical resurrection of the corpse is important.   Paul doesn’t ask skeptics to trust in some abstract, objective truth.   You aren’t supposed to agree to a disembodied access to ultimate reality.  Quite the contrary!  
God is aware that you & I have no unmediated access to ultimate truth, so the Ultimate Truth enters into human culture, where He can be seen & heard & touched; where He can be mocked & tortured & crucified; where He can be raised from death & held onto; where you can put your finger in His nail marks, & your hand in His side.  
Jesus speaks God’s eternal Word in human language, with all the beauty & difficulty that entails.  You aren’t supposed to have disembodied access to ultimate truth: the only way you’re going to find truth is through the flesh & blood presence of Jesus, who is the Truth.  
The foundation of the faith Paul wants you to cling to is not an abstract principle, but a human body: the human body of Jesus, that once was a corpse, but now is alive forever more.  So take your narrow hope & your nagging doubts to Christ.  He is the 1st evidence of more to come.  His resurrected corpse is the 1st installment, the opening solo   of the New Creation symphony!  
Your resurrection life is the more to come foreshadowed by the resurrected Jesus.  He is the firstfruits offering, set aside as holy to God even as we, His people, depend on Him for the rest of the harvest that is still to come.  Christ is risen!  (He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!) is not just a slogan.   It is the objective truth which changed world & eternal history.    There is more to come: “…In Christ all will be made alive.  But each one in his own turn: Christ, the Firstfruit; then, when He comes, those who belong to Christ.  Then the End will come…”  (1 Corinthians 15:22-24 NET)    That ultimate End is Jesus, the battlefield champion, placing His resurrected foot on the neck of the final enemy, Death, declaring total victory forever & ever.  
That, Paul says, is the End of the resurrection story.  That is Yahweh’s ultimate will for His creation.  But we’re not there yet.  People who belong to Jesus still struggle with sin.  People who belong to Jesus still get into arguments.  People who belong to Jesus still get sick & eventually die.  
As long as death holds captive even one physical body belonging to Jesus, He isn’t finished with His victory work.   Only when every gravestone is obsolete & every Christian corpse stands full grown into a New Creation, only then will we see God’s ultimate will for His creation.  Only then will the resurrection event of Jesus reach its crowning chapter.  
Christ has died; Christ is risen; (Christ will come again!  Alleluia!)  Amen. 
 
 
Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!   Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!   Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!   Suffer to redeem our loss.  Alleluia!    Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!   Unto Christ our heavenly King, Alleluia!   Who endured the cross & grave, Alleluia!   Sinners to redeem & save.  Alleluia!   Amen.  LSB 457:1-2.  

​Easter Celebration – 2019                                                           LSB #’s 461:1-4, 741:1-6, 461:5-8
Text – Colossians 3:1-4 
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.   For you have died, & your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
 
FOLLOW JESUS — With an Easter Perspective on Death & Dying
 
 
On Death & Dying is the title of a book that once gained fame & notoriety for its author, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.  For months on end she basked in the limelight as a guest on radio & TV talk shows.  Her book had touched a raw nerve.  It proved to be a source of irritation to funeral directors because she claimed that they often take advantage of vulnerable people.
But she also made a lot of ordinary people feel uncomfortable through bringing out into the open a subject that they prefer to sweep under the rug.  Oprah Winfrey reopened the same subject by hosting some death-and-dying gurus on her talk show – Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, & James van Praagh, just to mention a few. 
We’re part of a society that goes to extremes to mask death & dying.  People are unsure anymore where it leads.  To annihilation?  To reincarnation?  To confrontation with God?  They tend to dismiss the prospect of hell, but then who knows?   Heaven seems like a neat prospect, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. 
It’s the nagging uncertainty that colors the perspective many people have on death & dying.  Easter offers those who follow Jesus a very different perspective.  God’s people are not plagued by a nagging uncertainty.  They don’t shake in their boots at the prospect of death & dying.  They can contemplate death just as they do life – with calm serenity & bold confidence. 
Today we’re calling that An Easter Perspective on Death & Dying.  According to St. Paul, Easter’s perspective is three-dimensional.  There’s something past, something present, &
something future.  With the thoughts of the Apostle Paul on those subjects   we FOLLOW JESUS - With an Easter Perspective on Death & Dying. 
When we talk about life & death, we always do it in that order - life first, then death.  We talk about life-and-death issues or a life-and-death struggle.  But if you were listening carefully to Paul’s words, you may have noticed that he turns the two around.  Paul talks about death & life rather than life & death.   From an Easter perspective, he does so quite properly. 
Paul’s words are an encouragement for us to set our hearts on things above, not on earthly things.   Then he states the reason for doing so: “For you died.”  The way Paul sees it, death is not a future prospect for us.  It has already occurred.  It’s in the past.  That’s what happens to us at our baptism, he explained in the previous chapter of this letter. 
In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes that same point, but explains himself more fully. “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”   He means that “we were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead…” (Romans 6:3-4)  We’ll pick up the rest of it later. 
For now, notice what he’s saying – Jesus died & was stuck away in a tomb.   Your baptism means that you died along with Jesus & were stuck away in His tomb with him.  That’s how God sees things.  He sees your death & burial as something that has already taken place in connection with   Christ’s death & burial.  
We’re talking about your original nature, about the person you were before God adopted you as His child.  That is part of what being “in Christ” is about.  Here’s a quote from Luther to show how he emphasized this important truth:
“If we have been baptized in Christ’s death, we have also died & been buried.  We are already shoveled into the grave!  That’s something sweet & lovely to hear, that Christ’s death is my grave in which I have now been buried.”    How’s that for a perspective   on death & dying?  No need for nagging uncertainty about your death, is there?  It’s already happened!    No need to shake in your boots at the prospect of something that’s in the past. 
Now then, if that is the past, what is the present?  Paul answers, “For you died, & your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  Note that little word “now.”   He’s talking about what’s in the present – a new life hidden with Christ.  Just as your baptism connects you with Christ’s death & burial, so also your baptism unites you with His resurrection & His life. 
Back to that Romans passage quoted in part moments ago.  After saying that we were buried with Christ through baptism, Paul continues, “…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”   And to make sure there’s no misunderstanding, Paul adds:
“If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”  (Romans 6:5 ESV)  As God sees things, you entered the grave with Jesus on Good Friday & you came out of it with Him on Easter Sunday.   Your Creator has given you a new life to live right now – in the present – every day of your life. 
What kind of a life is that?  Paul wrote, “If then you have been raised with Christ (an accomplished fact), seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”  Then for the sake of emphasis, he repeats what he said: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”  (Colossians 3:1-2 ESV) 
You have been given a life that is hidden with Christ in God.  Your choices, your attitude, & your lifestyle will reflect that every day.  Here’s what that means.  Faith conquers doubt; hope prevails over despair, confidence over worry, optimism over pessimism, joy over a sour outlook.  Your Easter perspective is what determines whether your life is a smile or a frown, an upper or a downer.  One person whose life is a compelling reflection of the Easter perspective is Joni Eareckson Tada.  She’s a quadriplegic as a result of a swimming accident when she was a teenager.  She’s also an artist who paints by holding the brush between her teeth & moving her head.  A noted speaker says of her:
“Twice it’s been my privilege to introduce Joni.  Each time I’ve ventured to predict that her message would show her to be the healthiest person in the building – a prediction which so far as I could judge, came true both times.”   She has true life in Christ, yet to the eyesight of many it’s hidden behind a crippled body. 
We can learn from Joni about what has true value & what is nothing but tinsel.  We can learn to set our hearts on things above.  When we do, we’re living out our new life in Christ, however hidden it may be.   That is Paul’s answer to the question, “What’s present about an Easter perspective?”   It’s a new life now though “hidden with Christ in God.” 
Now for the last, what is future about an Easter perspective on death & dying?  “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”  (Colossians 3:4 ESV)   That’s the bottom line of Easter, the ultimate meaning of that phrase “in Christ.” 
Jesus is coming back again as He promised; not in humility as the 1st time, but in glory the likes of which the world has never seen.  You & I will be there to witness it.  So will everyone else who’s ever lived, because Easter is going to repeat itself billions of times.  Every grave on the face of the earth will open & release its occupant. 
It’ll be the spectacle to end all spectacles.  No more hidden life, & all those who found their life in Christ here will share in His glory forever.   What a way to wrap up Paul’s three-dimensional Easter perspective.  It includes a death that has already occurred – yours;   a new life now, although hidden with Christ in God – that’s yours too;   & a life of endless glory with Jesus when He appears again.   As a closing illustration, here’s a story from a nursing home visit I did during my vicarage.  The man’s name was Mark & since we hadn’t met before I knew nothing about him except his name & room #.  But right from the start things were a bit unusual. 
Where I grew up, the name Mark wasn’t common until shortly before my generation, so I was expecting a much younger man.  He was in his 80’s.   Adding to the circumstances, he already had visitors, his daughter & son-in-law, but they said I shouldn’t mind, they’ll just sit & listen.  After Mark & I talked about 15 minutes, I noticed that both of them were starting to cry.
As I went about giving communion, their weeping became more pronounced, so I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable.  I was concerned that I was doing something inappropriate as this was one of my 1st communion visits with a shut-in.   Then, as I finished the visit they both thanked me & seemed appreciative that I’d been there. 
About a month later, Mark passed away.  The day of the funeral I finally heard the children’s side of the story about that visit.  For months previous to his death, he’d been in the hospice program & medication which included morphine.  His children hadn’t had a lucid conversation with him for some time, & they had never heard him confess his faith in Jesus. 
Their father had been one of those crusty old men, uncomfortable with sharing his feelings or even his faith.  They were very concerned about where their father would spend eternity.  Yet, in that 15 minute conversation with me, & during the order of communion, Mark was completely rational.  He also talked clearly about his faith in Jesus Christ. 
What a blessing that was for his children.  God had lifted a huge burden of fear from their shoulders & they were grateful.  That new perspective on their father’s death & dying was all made possible when Jesus rose victorious that 1st Easter morning.  The Easter perspective on death & dying allowed them hope for meeting their father again in the next life; a life where their relationship will be perfect & completely free of fear.  Nothing more will be hidden.  The Easter perspective on death & dying holds just as glorious a promise for your future.  Do not be afraid!  Because Christ lives, you also will live.  What a powerful motivation that is for us to continue following Jesus every day until we join our risen Lord in everlasting glory.  Amen.
 
 
I am flesh & must return  to the dust, whence I am taken;  but by faith I now discern  that from death I shall awaken  with my Savior to abide  in His glory at His side.    Then take comfort & rejoice, for His members Christ will cherish.   Fear not, they will hear His voice; dying, they will never perish; for the very grave is stirred when the trumpet’s blast is heard.  Amen.  LSB 741:4.

​Easter Celebration – 2019                                                           LSB #’s 461:1-4, 741:1-6, 461:5-8
Text – Colossians 3:1-4 
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.   For you have died, & your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
 
FOLLOW JESUS — With an Easter Perspective on Death & Dying
 
 
On Death & Dying is the title of a book that once gained fame & notoriety for its author, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.  For months on end she basked in the limelight as a guest on radio & TV talk shows.  Her book had touched a raw nerve.  It proved to be a source of irritation to funeral directors because she claimed that they often take advantage of vulnerable people.
But she also made a lot of ordinary people feel uncomfortable through bringing out into the open a subject that they prefer to sweep under the rug.  Oprah Winfrey reopened the same subject by hosting some death-and-dying gurus on her talk show – Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, & James van Praagh, just to mention a few. 
We’re part of a society that goes to extremes to mask death & dying.  People are unsure anymore where it leads.  To annihilation?  To reincarnation?  To confrontation with God?  They tend to dismiss the prospect of hell, but then who knows?   Heaven seems like a neat prospect, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. 
It’s the nagging uncertainty that colors the perspective many people have on death & dying.  Easter offers those who follow Jesus a very different perspective.  God’s people are not plagued by a nagging uncertainty.  They don’t shake in their boots at the prospect of death & dying.  They can contemplate death just as they do life – with calm serenity & bold confidence. 
Today we’re calling that An Easter Perspective on Death & Dying.  According to St. Paul, Easter’s perspective is three-dimensional.  There’s something past, something present, &
something future.  With the thoughts of the Apostle Paul on those subjects   we FOLLOW JESUS - With an Easter Perspective on Death & Dying. 
When we talk about life & death, we always do it in that order - life first, then death.  We talk about life-and-death issues or a life-and-death struggle.  But if you were listening carefully to Paul’s words, you may have noticed that he turns the two around.  Paul talks about death & life rather than life & death.   From an Easter perspective, he does so quite properly. 
Paul’s words are an encouragement for us to set our hearts on things above, not on earthly things.   Then he states the reason for doing so: “For you died.”  The way Paul sees it, death is not a future prospect for us.  It has already occurred.  It’s in the past.  That’s what happens to us at our baptism, he explained in the previous chapter of this letter. 
In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes that same point, but explains himself more fully. “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”   He means that “we were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead…” (Romans 6:3-4)  We’ll pick up the rest of it later. 
For now, notice what he’s saying – Jesus died & was stuck away in a tomb.   Your baptism means that you died along with Jesus & were stuck away in His tomb with him.  That’s how God sees things.  He sees your death & burial as something that has already taken place in connection with   Christ’s death & burial.  
We’re talking about your original nature, about the person you were before God adopted you as His child.  That is part of what being “in Christ” is about.  Here’s a quote from Luther to show how he emphasized this important truth:
“If we have been baptized in Christ’s death, we have also died & been buried.  We are already shoveled into the grave!  That’s something sweet & lovely to hear, that Christ’s death is my grave in which I have now been buried.”    How’s that for a perspective   on death & dying?  No need for nagging uncertainty about your death, is there?  It’s already happened!    No need to shake in your boots at the prospect of something that’s in the past. 
Now then, if that is the past, what is the present?  Paul answers, “For you died, & your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  Note that little word “now.”   He’s talking about what’s in the present – a new life hidden with Christ.  Just as your baptism connects you with Christ’s death & burial, so also your baptism unites you with His resurrection & His life. 
Back to that Romans passage quoted in part moments ago.  After saying that we were buried with Christ through baptism, Paul continues, “…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”   And to make sure there’s no misunderstanding, Paul adds:
“If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”  (Romans 6:5 ESV)  As God sees things, you entered the grave with Jesus on Good Friday & you came out of it with Him on Easter Sunday.   Your Creator has given you a new life to live right now – in the present – every day of your life. 
What kind of a life is that?  Paul wrote, “If then you have been raised with Christ (an accomplished fact), seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”  Then for the sake of emphasis, he repeats what he said: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”  (Colossians 3:1-2 ESV) 
You have been given a life that is hidden with Christ in God.  Your choices, your attitude, & your lifestyle will reflect that every day.  Here’s what that means.  Faith conquers doubt; hope prevails over despair, confidence over worry, optimism over pessimism, joy over a sour outlook.  Your Easter perspective is what determines whether your life is a smile or a frown, an upper or a downer.  One person whose life is a compelling reflection of the Easter perspective is Joni Eareckson Tada.  She’s a quadriplegic as a result of a swimming accident when she was a teenager.  She’s also an artist who paints by holding the brush between her teeth & moving her head.  A noted speaker says of her:
“Twice it’s been my privilege to introduce Joni.  Each time I’ve ventured to predict that her message would show her to be the healthiest person in the building – a prediction which so far as I could judge, came true both times.”   She has true life in Christ, yet to the eyesight of many it’s hidden behind a crippled body. 
We can learn from Joni about what has true value & what is nothing but tinsel.  We can learn to set our hearts on things above.  When we do, we’re living out our new life in Christ, however hidden it may be.   That is Paul’s answer to the question, “What’s present about an Easter perspective?”   It’s a new life now though “hidden with Christ in God.” 
Now for the last, what is future about an Easter perspective on death & dying?  “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”  (Colossians 3:4 ESV)   That’s the bottom line of Easter, the ultimate meaning of that phrase “in Christ.” 
Jesus is coming back again as He promised; not in humility as the 1st time, but in glory the likes of which the world has never seen.  You & I will be there to witness it.  So will everyone else who’s ever lived, because Easter is going to repeat itself billions of times.  Every grave on the face of the earth will open & release its occupant. 
It’ll be the spectacle to end all spectacles.  No more hidden life, & all those who found their life in Christ here will share in His glory forever.   What a way to wrap up Paul’s three-dimensional Easter perspective.  It includes a death that has already occurred – yours;   a new life now, although hidden with Christ in God – that’s yours too;   & a life of endless glory with Jesus when He appears again.   As a closing illustration, here’s a story from a nursing home visit I did during my vicarage.  The man’s name was Mark & since we hadn’t met before I knew nothing about him except his name & room #.  But right from the start things were a bit unusual. 
Where I grew up, the name Mark wasn’t common until shortly before my generation, so I was expecting a much younger man.  He was in his 80’s.   Adding to the circumstances, he already had visitors, his daughter & son-in-law, but they said I shouldn’t mind, they’ll just sit & listen.  After Mark & I talked about 15 minutes, I noticed that both of them were starting to cry.
As I went about giving communion, their weeping became more pronounced, so I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable.  I was concerned that I was doing something inappropriate as this was one of my 1st communion visits with a shut-in.   Then, as I finished the visit they both thanked me & seemed appreciative that I’d been there. 
About a month later, Mark passed away.  The day of the funeral I finally heard the children’s side of the story about that visit.  For months previous to his death, he’d been in the hospice program & medication which included morphine.  His children hadn’t had a lucid conversation with him for some time, & they had never heard him confess his faith in Jesus. 
Their father had been one of those crusty old men, uncomfortable with sharing his feelings or even his faith.  They were very concerned about where their father would spend eternity.  Yet, in that 15 minute conversation with me, & during the order of communion, Mark was completely rational.  He also talked clearly about his faith in Jesus Christ. 
What a blessing that was for his children.  God had lifted a huge burden of fear from their shoulders & they were grateful.  That new perspective on their father’s death & dying was all made possible when Jesus rose victorious that 1st Easter morning.  The Easter perspective on death & dying allowed them hope for meeting their father again in the next life; a life where their relationship will be perfect & completely free of fear.  Nothing more will be hidden.  The Easter perspective on death & dying holds just as glorious a promise for your future.  Do not be afraid!  Because Christ lives, you also will live.  What a powerful motivation that is for us to continue following Jesus every day until we join our risen Lord in everlasting glory.  Amen.
 
 
I am flesh & must return  to the dust, whence I am taken;  but by faith I now discern  that from death I shall awaken  with my Savior to abide  in His glory at His side.    Then take comfort & rejoice, for His members Christ will cherish.   Fear not, they will hear His voice; dying, they will never perish; for the very grave is stirred when the trumpet’s blast is heard.  Amen.  LSB 741:4.