Tag Archives: Jesus

May 24, 2025

John 13:31-35 • May 18, 2025 • Oak Valley Lutheran Church, Velva, ND

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and risen Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

First of all, thank you for welcoming me into your community today. One of the things I enjoy most while serving as your bishop is getting to join congregations in worship nearly every week of the year. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a few months. It is a great joy to be with you! I’m grateful for the journey we’ve been on together. I’m grateful for the elected leadership at Oak Valley, for your most amazing community of GIFTS leaders, and, really, grateful for what God is doing today and will continue to do into the future as your new relationship with Pr. Emmy begins to unfold. God is good.

Second, I bring greetings to you from your brothers and sisters of the WND Synod – nearly 160 congregations, serving in the western two-thirds of our great state;

I bring greetings from your brothers and sisters across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America– around 9,000 congregations serving together across the United States and the Caribbean;

and, I bring you greetings from your siblings in the Lutheran World Federation or LWF, of which our denomination of the ELCA is the only representative of from the United States.

LWF connects 149 Lutheran denominations, over 77 million children of God, serving together in 99 different countries who serve on every continent on Earth. This global communion of Lutheran churches who formed shortly after World War 2 as a way to help rebuild congregations, communities, and lives in the aftermath of the evil and horror that is war.

I know that many of you have heard those greetings from me many times before. I offer them every chance I get.

They are important for us to hear because they are just one of the ways that help us see just how important the ministry and mission that God is calling us into is. And, even though that ministry and mission might look and feel different in places outside of our local congregations, Jesus is still inviting his disciples – you and me – to have love for one another.

Which, we all know, can be a challenge for us from time to time.

An old story that I first heard from my pastoral care professor in seminary many years ago.

A teenager came home from youth choir practice at church early one evening. His dad asked, “Why are you home so soon?”

“We had to call off choir practice this week, dad. The piano player and choir director got into a terrible fight about how we should sing, ‘Let There be Peace on Earth,’ so we quit for the night.”

It was a long, long, time ago – and since I’m part of this story, I reserve the right to not share with you just how long ago it was, although we can count the number of years in decades now.

It was in a place far, far away – Wilton, ND.

Well, OK, maybe not that far away, but when you make a daily trek from Bismarck to Wilton in the depths of a North Dakota winter as a college student, it sure felt a lot further then than it does now.

I was in my final year of college, finishing a degree in music education.

This is the semester that I had worked toward and waited three and a half years to experience.

I…was finally a student teacher.

One of the highlights and great joys of my semester student teaching in Wilton was the fifth and sixth grade beginner band. I loved those kids. I loved how hard they worked. I loved how much fun they had playing together.

I loved how we walked through the ancient rituals of band practice, how we encouraged one another along the way, and how we tried to make sure that everyone who wanted to play in the band had the opportunity to play in the band.

The day finally came after weeks of hard work.

The spring concert.

The gym was packed as I walked to the front of the band, lifted my conductor’s baton, and hoped that someone, someone, anyone, even if it was just one person would remember what we had been working on, would remember something about the music that we had prepared for this concert.

That all the study and rituals we had experienced together in the band room somehow had become part of who they now were.

That somehow, they would magically follow the direction of my baton and play their instrument.

And that it would sound something like what a fifth and sixth grade band is supposed to sound like.

And you know what…they did.

And as I remember that night in the Wilton school gym, they sounded pretty darn good too.

Each week, you and I are given opportunities to walk together through ancient Christian rituals and traditions like worship. Outside of worship, we are given opportunities to live out our life in Christ through disciplines like prayer and Bible study, service in places like food pantries or giving of ourselves by breaking up a concrete driveway in ninety-degree heat.

These are sacred and holy events that form us and gather us together as a community of faith.

All of these things are reflections of Jesus’ command to the eleven disciples, and to you and me today, to love one another. But for Jesus, love is not simply a feeling that we have from time to time – like our love for chocolate or a large single-pump vanilla latte with an extra shot or that queasy kind of feeling we get when we first realize that we might be in love with someone romantically.

One Lutheran theologian that I’ve read often over the years believes that “We have cheapened love by using the word carelessly. We have confused the sentimentality of the Hallmark card with the deep, dark mystery of love that is manifested for us in the incarnate Christ. Yes, love can be warm, enfolding and sheltering. Yes, love can feel good. But,” she wrote, “love can also be strong and difficult. It can be an impossible challenge.” [Rev. Margaret Guenther, “No Exceptions Permitted,” article in The Christian Century, May 3, 1995]

So it’s important that we take time to look closely at the fine print in our gospel reading today. Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus wants these eleven disciples, the first community who follow Jesus, to have love for each other.

Throughout all four gospels, it’s pretty easy to see that this seems to be something the disciples really struggle with.

How are you and I doing with this? Love for each other?

If we take even a simple look at Christian history, love is not always the first thing that we are known for. And I’m not just talking about the crusades or the protestant reformation or even the recent history across many congregations in Christian churches across the United States.

How are you and I doing with this command from Jesus to have love for each other?

What happened in your life just a few minutes before you came to worship today or what happened on Tuesday afternoon last week. As followers of the risen savior Jesus Christ, our track record on the love that Jesus is commanding us to live out today isn’t always very good.

That’s why I hope you also heard Jesus saying to the disciples, and to you and me still today, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” “Just as I have loved you,” Jesus says.

Did you catch that?

Did you hear that good news from Jesus?

God doesn’t love us because we’ve got this love thing all figured out and are always perfect at living with the kind of love that Jesus is talking about today and models for us throughout the gospels.

The good news of Jesus Christ is that God loved us first.

And God continues to love you and me in spite of all the mistakes we make along the way.

And just like that fifth and sixth grade band who made beautiful music in a school gym many years ago, God will never give up on sending us into the world to share the beautiful music of God’s love with others.

I am so excited to get to witness the amazing ways that beautiful music will flow from the mission and ministry of Oak Valley Lutheran Church in Velva, North Dakota as you begin a new chapter in your history today with the installation of Pastor Emmy Swedland.

Thank you once again for the invitation to be with you today. And thank you for the many ways that God’s children experience the love of Christ throughout the world because of you.

Our worship together today will conclude in the same way that Christian worship has concluded for centuries. Your newly installed pastor will stand before the followers of the risen Jesus Christ at Oak Valley and offer a blessing. A blessing with ancient words that send us out with God’s love and a command from Jesus for us to share that love with others.

“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” is what we will hear.

To which the children whom God loves will respond. “Thanks be to God.”

Sisters and brothers in Christ, let it be so.

Amen.

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April 3, 2018

“Christ is Risen!” 2018 Easter Sermon 04.01.2018

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Easter 2018 * John 20:1-18 * April 1, 2018Easter 2018 * John 20:1-18 * April 1, 2018

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the RISEN Christ. Amen.

So this year, Easter falls on April’s Fools Day. The last time this happened was in 1956 and there will only be two more occurrences of Easter falling on April Fool’s Day this century. In case you didn’t know this, the actual date for Easter changes each year. It’s not a set date like Christmas. If you were paying attention as we received the gospel readings over the past four days of Holy Week worship, you’ll note that scripture doesn’t tell us that Maundy Thursday or any of the other days have a specific calendar date – only a specific day of the week. After all, God’s time is not the same thing as human time. It may surprise some, but God, in fact, does not have an Apple Watch.

I’ve never explored this too far but…the date for Easter is determined as the first Sunday, after the first full moon, on or before the Spring equinox.

OK – before I keep chasing after that squirrel, let’s move on.

Since the very earliest days of the Christian movement, there’s been a very significant, and somewhat foolish I might add, greeting used to signify Easter and the resurrection. Someone will say “Christ is risen!” And someone else will say “He is risen indeed!”

Let’s try it.
Awesome! You guys are great.

BUT – wait a minute. Weren’t you listening? Why are we shouting for joy?

In our gospel reading on this Easter Day, Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved have been to the empty tomb, don’t seem to understand what is going on so they decide to head for home in order to continue their Xbox video game tournament. Or something like that.

And Mary, one of Jesus’ closest friends and someone whom I believe we should see as one of the first disciples, is weeping.

So why are you and I, followers of Jesus nearly 2,000 years later, shouting for joy?

Here’s something about the resurrection that has rested on my heart this year. Peter, the other disciple, and Mary Magdalene don’t know what’s going on – they don’t know the end of the story. At this point, all they know is that Jesus – this friend of their’s whom they thought was the Messiah – has been brutally killed just a few days earlier. They don’t see any reason why there is going to be anything more to this story than the horrific, bloody death of their friend on a cross. They have to be thinking – this is the end. Nothing more to see here. Let’s move on with our lives.

Early on this first day of the week, they come to the grave where they thought Jesus was to be buried, and he’s not there. Is that all there is to their story? Is the story of Jesus, God’s son, our Savior, over?

You and I know that death on a Friday we dare call Good, is not the end of the story. The first disciples to witness the resurrection didn’t know that, at least not yet.

As Mary is weeping, she doesn’t recognize Jesus, but Jesus recognizes her. Not because of anything she does, but because of what God does for her through Jesus.

We began worship today by giving thanks for and affirming our own baptism. In the sacred and holy waters and words of promise from God that is the sacrament of Holy Baptism, God claims us. A sacrament when we see Jesus recognizes us. Not because of anything we do, but because of what God does for us through Jesus.

Peter and the other disciple have no idea what is going on at the tomb “for as yet they did not understand the scripture.” Over the next few weeks in our worship life together, we’ll discover that they will begin to understand the scripture as they experience the resurrected Jesus first hand. Again, not because of anything they do, but what God does for them through Jesus.

After all of the Easter candy has been consumed – or hidden by wise parents – and the Easter dinner is over, and family and friends have returned to their homes and busy lifestyles; what does any of this mean? What does it mean to be a follower of this Jesus?

This Jesus who couldn’t even be stopped by death. This Jesus who recognizes and calls each of us by name as precious children of God – loved and claimed and freed – in spite of all of the ways that we try to turn and run from God. All of the ways that we try and put God to death expecting that we, somehow, can keep God dead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the resurrection of Jesus is not simply a historical event that we remember each year like a national holiday or birthday. And the resurrection of Jesus is not only about some future hope that we have for ourselves and our loved ones after our earthly death.

I’m sorry, but if we focus all of our attention on a past or future event, we are completely missing the resurrection promise that’s right in front of us today. The resurrection promise of Jesus that calls us to live with a hope that we can experience and witness each and every day of our life together as part of the body of Christ. Hope that is only possible because of what God has already done, and is continuing to do for us, through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.

So don’t worry about Easter falling on April Fool’s day this year. You don’t need to ignore it. It actually might be helpful.

One ELCA pastor, Paul Lutter said – “Through his death and resurrection for us, Jesus Christ is God’s foolish power on the loose among us. Our strength is toppled by his weakness. Our wisdom is toppled by his foolishness. And we are never the same again. We are made new. We are turned upside down for the sake of Christ, who dies and is raised from death for us. We are given new identities. Marked with the cross of this foolish Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit in the waters of baptism, we are made fools for Christ.” [“Foolish Power,” Living Lutheran, April 1, 2011]

So for today, let’s greet one another as fools for Christ with foolish joy and proclaim “Christ is Risen!” “He is risen indeed!”

And just like Peter, the other disciple, Mary Magdalene and every follower of Jesus since that first resurrection day, let’s not be afraid or stand around weeping. Let’s proclaim truth every day.

The truth that God has, is, and will always be a God of resurrection. A God of resurrection that conquers every death we will ever experience. A God of resurrection that sounds foolish to some. A God of resurrection that brings forth new life, always and in all ways.

And so tomorrow, on Easter Monday, let’s continue being fools for Christ as we greet one another with joy and proclaim “Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed!”

And next weekend we will greet one another with joy and proclaim “Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed!”

And later this year, we will greet one another with joy and proclaim “Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed!”

Thanks be to God! Amen.

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