Just wanted to remind everyone that my blog has moved.  The new location for it is www.revtucher.com.  Also, all comments have been disabled.  If you want to comment on a post, please comment at the new site.

Hey everyone! The moving of the blog is complete.  All of the posts from here have been moved over, as well as all the comments.  Please update your RSS readers and continue to read.  Check out some of the pages.  Note that the site is not complete, but is a work in progress.

The new address is http://www.revtucher.com.

Enjoy!

Easter Morning

Almighty God the Father, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You have overcome death and opened the gate of everlasting life to us.  Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of our Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by Your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

O God, for our redemption You have Your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross and by His glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of the enemy.  Grant that all our sin may be drowned through daily repentance and that day by day we may arise to live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Easter Sunrise

Almighty God, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life.  We humbly pray that we may live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

This blog will be moving soon.  Stay tuned for more information (probably after Easter).

An ELCA church in Minneapolis has recently installed their new pastor.  That doesn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary.  Churches install pastors all the time.  However, the new pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church is not your ordinary pastor; he is a gay pastor.  Present at his installation was his male partner of the last 5 1/2 years.

The ELCA has formed a task force to discuss whether or not homosexual clergy who are in committed, monogomous relationships, should be allowed to remain rostered clergy.  A task force has recommended a policy that would let congregations decide whether to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as their clergy.  The resolution has been criticized from both directions, with liberals saying it doesn’t go far enough and conservatives saying it conflicts with Scripture. This topic will be brought forward for major discussion at the ELCA’s next convention this August in Minneapolis.

Links

Article

Calvary Lutheran Church

ELCA

O sacred Head, now wounded,
With grief and shame weighed
down,
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, Thine only crown.
O sacred Head, what glory,
What bliss, till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory,
I joy to call Thee mine.

How pale Thou art with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn!
How doth Thy face now languish
That once was bright as morn!
Grim death, with cruel rigor,
Hath robbed Thee of Thy life;
Thus Thou hast lost Thy vigor,
Thy strength, in this sad strife.

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor,
And grant to me Thy grace.

My Shepherd, now receive me;
My Guardian, own me Thine.
Great blessings Thou didst give me,
O Source of gifts divine.
Thy lips have often fed me
With words of truth and love;
Thy Spirit oft hath led me
To heav’nly joys above.

What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never,
Outlive my love for Thee.

My Savior, be Thou near me
When death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me,
Forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish,
O leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish
By virtue of Thine own!

Be Thou my consolation,
My shield, when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion
When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee.
Who dieth thus dies well.

Lutheran Service Book #450

John 19:17-30

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon comes from John 19:17-30.

The King is here, standing before the people. The jury is back, the verdict has been read – on the charge of blasphemy: guilty; the sentence: death. Unlike modern day criminals, he carried His own form of execution. He carried His own cross to Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. The reason for His death: for being “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

His execution was scheduled with two other criminals, one on either side of Him. The two thieves serve as reminders that such a fate is what every person deserves. Not all people deserve to be executed for crimes against the state, but all deserve death from the hand of God. Who deserves to be on Golgotha being crucified? Is it Jesus, the sinless One? Is it the criminals? Is it someone else? Jesus does not deserve to be crucified there; He is sinless and perfect, doing nothing to warrant crucifixion. The two criminals did something to deserve death, but did it warrant crucifixion? If anyone deserves to be crucified on Golgotha, it is me. I am the one who committed crimes against the State, against God’s commands. My verdict was already pronounced in the Garden of Eden when my first parents sinned. But I am not the only one who deserves to be crucified on Golgotha. There is plenty of space all around me for all of you to be crucified as well, for you are all enemies of the State of Grace, of God.

There is good news for all of us. We are not the ones who are being crucified; though we are the ones who deserve it. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has gone before us to Golgotha to accept our punishment. Just as the prophet Isaiah writes, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” He took your punishment and He took mine. He did this out of love for you and for me.

So much for Christ being a king. What kind of king would willfully allow himself to be betrayed by his friends and then beaten, scourged and tried, all with no evidence of wrong doing?

On Palm Sunday, we heard Pontius Pilate ask the question to Jesus, “‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ And [Jesus] answered him, ‘You have said so.’” St. John record for us a more in-depth account of the response Jesus gave to Pilate: “You say that I am a king.  For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” All Pilate could say was “What is truth?”

That is the question to be asked: What is truth? In today’s society, truth is relative to the individual. We can have the facts of something presented to us and still decide that the truth is still up for grabs. In the end, truth is relative, except in the case of Christ. Truth is not relative; truth is definitive. The truth is this: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Our Good Shepherd suffered ridicule, death, and hell for your sins and for mine. He laid down His life for us. He laid down His innocent life for our lives which are guilty.

Jesus, the King of the Jews, was led to be crucified, for the sins of the people, including Pilate and the two criminals who were hanging on either side. He was dying for the sins of people who had beaten Him, mocked Him, hurled insults at Him, who utterly emasculated Him.

Jesus went to the cross because He loved us.  He gave His life as a ransom for many.  He gave His body to be whipped, to be spit upon, to be punched, cut with thorns, to be nailed through and crucified, all of it for you and me.  We can find rest here in the wounds of Jesus.

His precious blood, which He freely shed in His bitter sufferings and cruel death, is what cleanses us from all our sins.  His blood is our help.  When we are hurting, we can look to the human body of Jesus, which didn’t make use of its glorious divine power when the mystery of our redemption was being worked out.  In the bleeding wounds of Jesus is our only remedy.

Jesus went to the cross for us.  St. Paul says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”  We weren’t worthy of Christ’s heroic death for us.  He went anyway because he loved us before we were born.  It was glory for him to love us and take our burden upon himself.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Not only does Jesus love us, but the Father loves us as well.

It’s a hard thing to send a son or daughter off to war to fight for a noble cause.  One can only imagine what that must be like, not knowing if they will return or not, just holding on to hope and prayer.  But imagine the Father, sending his Son, knowing exactly what’s going to happen, and knowing that millions of people will never understand why you did it or know that you did it for them.

Jesus bore the wrath of God against our sins.  Simple pain and death was not the essence of what He endured.  He bore the wrath of God in His soul, the agonies of Hell.  He who is God was forsaken by God on the cross.  He became a curse, for He Himself had spoken through the prophet that “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” We cannot imagine what He endured.  And, thanks be to God, we who believe will never know first-hand.  He suffered for us and in our place on the cross on Calvary.

And when He had done all that the Scriptures said He would do, and when He had suffered all that was prophesied that the Messiah would suffer, He spoke the most precious word in the history of man, τετέλεσται, which takes three words in English to translate, "It is finished!" With those words, Jesus tells us that the debt of sin has been paid in full and the burden of the guilt of all mankind has been lifted forever.

You need to hear, that through Christ’s death, you have received the gift of life. You need to tell your young child and your 60-year-old spouse that Jesus died, but that He rose again from the dead. No child, however your or old, will ever be able to grasp the full dimension of that – of the resurrection. It is cause for faith. You need to hear, this night, that there is life through death – for Jesus, and for us, and for all who fall asleep in Christ. All of this is accomplished for us, by “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” In the name of Christ, the crucified, amen. Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

So we had put Wesley to bed at his normal bed time.  All was well until we went to bed around 11.  Gwen and I were lying in bed talking and around 11:30, Wesley had a cry that we had never heard before.  It seems that he might have an upset stomach.  We were looking for the Mylicon drops and couldn’t find them.  So I head to Walmart to get some.  I go to the baby section, forgetting that they are in the pharmacy section.  They didn’t have the little bottle, so I had to get the big bottle (which was $11.53!).  They had one lane open; not a big deal – unless you want to check out at midnight!  Why, you ask?  At midnight, they have to switch out the drawers.  So there I stood while they closed out the drawer and cashier #1 finished so cashier #2 could put in fresh money.

Right now, Wesley is asleep, I think, on Gwen, on the couch.  Hopefully when we lay him back down, he’ll stay asleep and sleep the night away.  I think every day this last week, he’s thrown up at least once – it hasn’t been pretty!