In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Several weeks ago, I returned an expensive L.E.D. light bulb that had suddenly stopped working. The large L.E.D. floodlight cost more money than I ever thought I would spend on a light bulb. The guarantee is that the floodlight would last for an amazing 25,000 hours. My long-lasting L.E.D. light bulb, however, lasted a small fraction of its guaranteed life. I stood in line at the Home Depot and returned my super-duper light bulb. I went home with another super-duper light bulb guaranteed to perform perfectly, nearly forever.

Jeffery and Tammy, you begin your marriage today with a holy hope that the love you have come to experience will always be nearly as perfect as it seems today. Our popular love songs imply that if you simply love another person, the person you love will always perfectly love you in return. However, Tammy and Jeffery, in case you have not already noticed, you are about to marry someone who is, well, rather im-perfect. Jeffery and Tammy, you are promising faithfulness and lifelong commitment to another sinner. How appropriate, however, that your first meal as husband and wife is at Jesus’ Holy Table where Jesus promises you the gift of his love undeserved and his forgiveness unearned. If your hope this day is of being perfectly loved, you will be sadly disappointed. If your dream is of a marriage free from sin, the person you are marrying today will always be somewhat less than perfect.

Jesus reminds us, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” Males and females have been getting married from nearly the beginning of God’s creation. In marriage, women and men have experienced a oneness of body and spirit that neither a husband or wife could experience alone in quite the same, God-given way. Jeffery and Tammy, what is unique about your marriage is that Jesus not only blesses your commitment of lifelong faithfulness. In your marriage, Jesus also makes a commitment always to be present. Jesus promises this day never to desert you in the challenges that are sure to come. Jesus reminds us, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Tammy and Jeffery, you will have few guarantees in your marriage. We pray that your love will be tempered and strengthened with each sin endured of the other. We pray that your love will become more and more the totally giving and forgiving love we see most clearly in the cross of Christ. There is one guarantee in your marriage, however, upon which you can always count. In every Holy Eucharist, Jesus is present to forgive you, even when you deserve it least. In every Holy Communion, Jesus is present to transform your im-perfect love into the totally giving love we see for us in the cross of Christ. Christ’s guarantee is to be present in your marriage, so that in your love, other sinners may experience the wonder of Jesus’ forgiving love in their lives. You can count on it.

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The time has come to say goodbye. Rightly or wrongly, many parishes tend to remember their history by the perfection—or lack of perfection—of their pastors. I know, it is hard to believe. We Americans have become a people who often demand perfection in one another. In Jesus’ time, a centurion was a powerful person who demanded perfection of the 100 men under his command. “A centurion [in Capernaum] had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When [the centurion] heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to [Jesus], asking him to come and heal his slave…When [Jesus] was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to [Jesus], ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant
be healed.’”

In our life together these 14 years, the amazing grace is that Christ has been present whether you or I were perfect in our faith—or not. When Moses expected it least, God surprised Moses with God’s amazing grace. “The angel of the Lord appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of a bush…God called to [Moses] out of the bush…‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’” When Moses expected it least, Moses came face-to-face with God’s amazing grace.

The last time I saw my saintly mother before she died, in Mother’s confused anxiety, she quietly prayed for God’s forgiveness. When I had no words of my own, I shared the words Mother and I had come to memorize in worship. I gently placed my hands on Mother’s head. “In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins.” The place on which I stood was holy ground.

As pastor of this Trinity Church, I stood at the bedside of those for whom death inevitably drew near. Bending low, I spoke in their ear of God’s love and forgiveness in the cross of Christ. As I stroked their forehead in prayer, I assured them of Jesus’ Easter promise of eternal life. Quietly and peacefully, these saints fell asleep in the arms of their loving Savior. The place on which I stood was holy ground.

The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” In the early hours of Sunday morning, I have shared breakfast with women and men who spent Saturday night sleeping within these walls. Sitting around an early Sunday morning breakfast table in our fellowship hall, I have seen Christ in our guests without house or home. I was not worthy to entertain angels. In our fellowship hall, the place on which I stood was holy ground.

In the epilogue of “The Cliffs of Incognita,” Harlan Bjornstad writes, “What is given to us to know? The beauty of life, but its hardships too…We live by the labor of others, for no one can be skilled at all things necessary to life. We live by the love of those around us, who care for us, and often know our needs better than we ourselves…By kind words and the loveliness of song…By the love of the maker of all these. By the forgiveness we extend to those who have wronged us, and the forgiveness they extend to us.”

What ultimately matters in your life? What ultimately matters in your life together as this Trinity Church? After a lifetime of baptized ministry, after lifetime of ministry we have shared in this place, the answer is simple. What ultimately matters in your life is Jesus and your living relationship with him. What ultimately matters in your life together as this Trinity Church is Jesus and your being the body of Christ in this place. In future years, when you pause to remember, you know, when ol’ pastor what’s ‘is name was pastor, my prayer is that you would first remember Jesus, Jesus’ cross, and Jesus’ empty tomb.

The time has come to say goodbye. In the years to come, when the challenges of my life seem insurmountable, when the limitations of this body I love rob me of invincibility, I shall pause and pray. I shall remember that in this place named Trinity Church I was enveloped in a Christ-like love that needed no words. In the years to come, when the inevitable doubts and fears of my faith threaten to rob me of the assurance of God’s amazing grace, I shall pause and pray. I shall remember that in this place named Trinity Church, as together we shared the sacred mysteries of Christ’s body and blood, I looked into your eyes and saw Jesus in my life. In the years to come, I shall never forget that in this place, the ground on which we stood together was truly holy ground.

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The people with whom Jesus lived were tired of living under enemy rule. All God needed to do was lift up a mighty military messiah. Jesus, however, taught the crowds, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…Blessed are those who mourn…Blessed are the meek.” No military messiah could ever lead a nation to victory with an army of those who were poor in spirit, those distracted with mourning the death of someone they loved, and especially with those who were meek.

The Robert I knew in these past 14 years was poor in spirit from living with a body that seemed increasingly to fail him. The Robert I came to know mourned for health and relationships that had become memories of good people and good times once taken for granted. The Robert I came to know was meek in his acceptance of a life that he did not choose.

As we give thanks to God for Robert’s life in our midst, we remember the faith that sustained Robert when so much in his body and health had failed him. We not only celebrate Jesus’ promise of Easter eternal life, but we also worship the Jesus who first suffered and died with us on his cross. I have never yet experienced the meekness with which Robert came to live each day. In his cross, however, Jesus understood Robert’s pain. Still bearing the suffering wounds of his cross, Jesus came to walk with Robert in the suffering Robert endured.

Robert has fallen asleep in the arms of his loving Lord. God forever envelops Robert in God’s baptismal promise of a peace and new life that not even Robert’s death can ever destroy. The living Jesus of Easter morning, however, is first the crucified Jesus wounded by our pain and suffering. Where was Jesus in these 14 years I have known Robert? Still bearing the wounds of his own suffering, Jesus walked with Robert through the challenges of each day. Jesus stood watch with Robert each day he meekly lay in a hospital bed. Even in the pain of Robert’s death, Jesus held Robert close with a crucified love that even Robert’s death can never destroy.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” In our suffering, we experience Jesus’ love as Jesus suffers with us. In our dying, we experience Jesus’ Easter victory over death itself. “We believe in the…resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The resurrection of Robert’s body and your resurrection and mine is God’s baptismal promise. Jesus’ Easter promise is life everlasting with Robert and all the saints who have gone before us. Robert lived with an Easter faith, and Robert died with an Easter faith. Jesus is present at this Holy Table so that you and I might live—and die—with that same Easter promise of “the resurrection of the body and the
life everlasting.”

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When it comes to God, most of us have many unanswered questions. When it comes to comprehending God named as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we have even more unanswered questions. In God’s infinite wisdom, God remains for you and me a mystery. As much as we would like to be in charge of the Universe, God is God, and you and I are not God. God is named as our Father, “creator of heaven and earth.” God is named as Son, “God’s only Son, our Lord.” God is named as Holy Spirit, God’s promised presence in “the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints.” Despite our best efforts to understand the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—God is Holy Mystery. Despite our best efforts to manipulate God as Holy Trinity to do our will, in the end, the Holy Trinity is a
timeless mystery.

For us who follow Jesus, however, we believe not that we know all there is to know about God. In Jesus, we believe that God has revealed all we need to know about God and God’s will. When in doubt about God’s will or God’s love, look to Jesus. Blessed Martin Luther would remind us that the essence of God is not revealed in the power and majesty of God’s creation. If you and I wish to understand the essence of God, Luther points us to Jesus—upon the cross. In the crucified Jesus, we see the mystery of God’s majesty and power “hidden,” as it were, in the cross.

When I talk with people who have forsaken the Church as a community of faith, I am amazed at how often their concept of God’s will matches nearly completely their own ideas and values. As popular as it is for people to speak of God as they conceive God to be, we who follow Jesus speak of God revealed most completely in the suffering love of Jesus upon the cross. In the cross of Christ, we see God’s forgiving love and God’s suffering love that most of us would never imagine God would have for us.

In Jesus as the Word of God with flesh and bones, we see and hear the unambiguous presence of God. For two thousand years, the Church has celebrated Christmas because, in the birth of Jesus, the Word of God takes on our human flesh and bones. In Jesus, we see and hear what the Blessed Trinity would have us see and hear. In Jesus, we see and hear how God, the Holy Trinity, would have us live together and what God would have us do. In Jesus, most especially in the cross of Jesus, we see, not all that we want to know of God, but in Jesus, the Holy Trinity reveals all that we need to know.

In the questions of your faith, look to Jesus. In the doubts and fears that can overwhelm your faith, look to Jesus upon the cross. On the cross, we see God’s forgiving love that not even death could destroy. Jesus said, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The longer I have lived, the more simple my faith has become. In the end, in the presence of the Holy Trinity named as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, when our words fail us, all we can do is bow low with the angels of heaven—and worship. “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.” The longer I have lived, the more I realize how little I really know about the God whom Luther reminds us is always deus absconditus, that is, “the hidden God.” As Luther concluded, where we expect it least, however, this Blessed Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reveals all we need to know of God in Christ’s vulnerable humanity and the seeming foolishness of his death upon a cross.

My prayer on this Festival of the Holy Trinity is that, in your faith, you would come to a place of word-less wonder, a place where we can no nothing else than bow low and worship God named as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am grateful that Mother Church enfolded me in her arms and did not leave my encounter with God up to chance. When I first began taking piano lessons as a boy, both my piano teacher and I were thrilled when, with great concentration, I was able to play the right note in the music at the right time. As a boy, I learned the first notes of the simple melodies of my Sunday School faith. Some of the less-exciting days of my teenage years where when my piano lessons progressed to endlessly playing scales in all possible keys. Surely, I thought, there must be more to life. As a teenager in years of catechism instruction, each night I worked at memorizing Luther’s Small Catechism. I remembering thinking, “Surely, there must be more to life. Surely, there must be more to being a member of Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church.”

My piano teacher made sure that I learned to play well scales in all the possible keys. Martin Luther and my mother made sure that I learned the scales of my faith so that I could worship with faith in the challenges of life yet to come. With regard to God who is named as Father, I was taught always to remember Father Martin’s words. “I believe that God has created me together with all that exists…All this is done out of pure, fatherly, and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness of mine at all! For all of this I owe it to God to thank and praise, serve and obey him.”

Sounding like a good Lutheran, the apostle Paul wrote of God the Son, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.” Luther and my Lutheran Church made sure I memorized what was worth always remembering about Jesus our Redeemer. “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God…and also a true human being…is my Lord. He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned human being.”

Of God the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Luther and my Lutheran Church made sure I memorized what we believe about this Spirit Sanctifier, God working in our midst so that you and I might become the holy people God baptized us to be. “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith.”

The ministry of Trinity Church is not to leave up to chance the faith and worship of our youngest children. If we only bring our children to Sunday School, without enveloping them in the worship of this community of faith, then we have only taught them a few disconnected notes in the Church’s song of faith. How shall our youngest children learn to sing the melody of the Trinity’s saving love for us in the cross of Christ?

If our young adults only participate in catechism instruction without worship, then you and I have only taught them how sing the story of salvation with the thin melody of one voice. The ministry of this Trinity Church is not to leave up to chance the faith of our young adults. The Blessed Trinity has called you together as a community of faith. The Holy Spirit of Jesus is at work so that our young adults would join their single voices with your voices in a subtle symphony of ever-changing harmonies that no one person can ever be by himself or herself.

Today, we worship the Holy Trinity as Holy Mystery glimpsed in all its majesty most clearly in the cross of Christ. When our own words fail us, together with the angels of heaven and the saints who have gone before us in this place, we bow low in near wordless worship and adoration. “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.”

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We have become a people who are suspicious of anyone in any position of influence. Our political debates have demeaned those who are entrusted with the education of our children. No sooner is a president of the United States elected, and we begin to look for any ways to criticize or destroy the very person we elected to solve all the problems we have created for ourselves. Parents have always struggled with children who wanted to be in charge of their own lives, rather than live under the guidance and authority of a mother and father. Even within the Church of Christ, parish disagreements can consume the energy of parish members, and pastors can often be “crucified” for not being as perfect in every way as Jesus himself.

Jesus calls you and me to be Christ in the lives of others. Even more difficult, however, Jesus calls you and me to see Christ in one another. Some people might assume that the reason pastors wear clerical collars and a distinctive “uniform” is so that others might respect their office—or their authority. Most people are surprised when I mention that the reason I always wear a clerical collar is not for others to see. The reason I always wear a clerical collar is for me. I wear a clerical collar always to remind myself that I am called by Christ to be something more in the lives of others than the sinner I know John Joseph Santoro to be.

Jesus reminds us that you and I have been baptized to be the words and arms and legs of Jesus. You and I have been baptized to be the physical presence of Christ’s love in the lives of others—whether we want to be or not, whether we are interested or not. Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” When I was being raised as a young boy, the commonly accepted principle was that if parents and teachers and adults expected little boys and little girls to act like well-behaved gentlemen and ladies, then they would grow up to be adult gentlemen and ladies. Living by rules and disciplines and meeting the expectations of others in authority has largely fallen out of favor. Jesus, however, reminds us, as his baptized followers, to act differently than most other people act. Jesus calls you and me to speak and act and love and forgive as Jesus does in your life and mine.

Holy Baptism in your life and mine, however, is not magic. Being the presence of Jesus in these troubled times is a lot of hard, difficult work. Just because you and I try to love and forgive as Jesus loves and forgives, we have no guarantee of success. Remember, Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” This Trinity Church, however, is that place in our lives where Jesus promises to feed us and fill us with his presence in us until it overflows into the lives of others. Remember also that if you wish to see Jesus’ love and forgiveness in your life, look around you.

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What is this thing we call the Church? The Church is God’s “magnificent obsession.” However, in your manufactured distractions and mine, we have made the Church of Christ born on Pentecost Day a “magnificent option.” My mother did not make me go to church every Sunday morning. In our home, certain things were assumed. I went to church because it was Sunday, and on Sunday, we went to church. Guess what? I
did not die.

Many of us like coming to church because worship is one peaceful place in our lives where we can retreat from the changes and chances of life. The birth of Christ’s Church, however, was anything but peaceful and predictable. Fifty days after Jesus’ Easter resurrection, the Church was born, but the birth was anything but predictable. “Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability…at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.”

In this Trinity Church, we read our Bible lessons in English, rather than the language of Parthians, Medes, and Elamites. God may understand all languages, but everyone knows that God prefers to listen to English. In our beloved land, we are not so sure of those illegal aliens from Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia. We like our Trinity worship without all those strange accents of Pontus, Asia, and Phrygia. In our fellowship hour, we refrain from serving food from Pamphylia, Egypt, and Libya. Our hymnal is devoid of hymns sung by Romans and Cretans—and certainly not those Arabs.

The Holy Spirit did not come upon the newborn Church to leave the followers of Jesus just where they had always been. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the ministry you share as this Trinity Church, you never quite know what will happen. In that first Pentecost sermon, the apostle Peter quotes the prophet Joel, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

Trinity Church is entering an exciting time of vision and discernment. One thing of which you can be sure, the same Holy Spirit that turned the newborn Church inside out and upside down is the same Holy Spirit that shall be at work in your midst. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy new possibilities for being Christ’s body in this place. Your young men and women shall see visions of what the Holy Spirit can accomplish in your future together with the risen Christ. Your older men and women shall dream dreams, not of what has been, but dreams of what can be when Jesus promises to be present in all you do
in his name.

Jesus gives this Trinity Church its marching orders. “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you…Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

The Holy Spirit of Pentecost is at work in your ministry, so that God’s Good News in the cross of Christ is heard by older women and men, by young women and men, by citizens of the blessed land, by immigrants seeking the unearned blessings you and I take for granted, by every culture and language in God’s wide world, by poorer people and rich, by those unemployed and employed, by heterosexuals and homosexuals, by persons single, married, and divorced, by Republicans and Democrats, by African Americans and Italian Americans. Filled with God’s Holy Spirit, dream holy dreams of Christ’s Church without walls, God’s world without borders, and all of God’s people united in the acceptance and love of Jesus and his cross.

The future of this Trinity Church is not calling the perfect new pastor. The future of this Trinity Church is not in whomever or whatever challenges you least and makes you feel best. The challenge of the Holy Spirit is that Trinity Church become less a “magnificent option.” To be Christ’s body in Christ’s world, you must first meet the Christ who promises to be present within these walls every week in Word and Sacrament. You cannot be Christ without first meeting Christ. When your life together as Trinity Church is little more than a “magnificent option,” your life together will be little more than sharing the left overs of your distracted life. When, however, the worship of Jesus becomes your “magnificent obsession,” God’s Holy Spirit promises to be at work in your midst. Trust me, you will not die. Trust me, this Trinity Church and you will come truly to live.

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sometimes it seems as though Jesus is asleep on the job. I grew up near a deep, mile-wide river. As a boy, on a hot summer day I swam nearly all day in the cool waters of the river. On a few occasions, however, I have felt sheer horror as the wake of a large ocean freighter pulled me out beyond the safety of shore. I remembered the warnings of riptides and those who had been pulled away to their deaths. I have sailed with a friend on the ocean. As night began to fall, the sea became eerily calm, preventing us from sailing back to the safety of shore. In the darkness, my friend told me that the fuel tank for our little motor registered empty. There is only one thing more frightening than death by water: death by water in total darkness.

“A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and [the disciples] woke [Jesus] and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we
are perishing?’”

Sometimes it seems as though Jesus is asleep on the job. When you have lost your job, when your mortgage payment seems like a million dollars each month, you pray, “Jesus, do you not care that we are perishing?” When you have undergone medical test after test, when the diagnosis becomes more ominous with each visit to a physician, you and your family pray, “Jesus, do you not care that we are perishing?” When war robs your life of someone you love, when a tornado rips through your home, your prayer can be, “Jesus, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The disciples, fearing death itself, had their pointed prayer answered. First, however, they had to wake up Jesus. “‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ [Jesus] woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased and there was a dead calm. [Jesus] said to [his disciples], ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’”

Sometimes, I have faith—and sometimes I do not have much faith. Sometimes, I trust in God’s promise to walk with me through life. Sometimes, however, I struggle to believe in God at all. When the darkness threatens to swallow me up in a sea of doubt, wondering whether God is with me is sometimes my fear rather than my faith. Jesus understands you and me better than we are willing to understand ourselves. In our darkest moments of fear, Jesus understands how hard it is to trust his presence with us and to trust his sustaining love. Jesus comes to walk with us, to cry with us, and to face with us the darkness of
our fears.

Whether we pray or not, whether we have an airtight faith or not, Jesus promises to come to us, even when we cannot muster the faith to trust his victory over the worst evils with which this life can confront us. In this Blessed Sacrament, Jesus comes to us, even in our fears, to bless us with the strength simply to trust his promise of a love that shall never leave us to face our
fears alone.

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As a child, on warm, sunny Sundays in May, I would walk to Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church. As I walked down Mary Street, I would see the plain bell tower of the Free Methodist Church. As I turned onto Broadway, I would see the white siding of the American Baptist Church. Walking down Broadway, I would see the umber bricks of the First United Methodist Church on the corner. Just before I arrived at my Lutheran Church, if I looked down Jefferson Street, I would see the gray stucco of Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church. Then, as I walked up to the front door of Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church, I would hear the bells of Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church calling its members to morning mass.

Walking within sight and sound of five other churches, in the security of my Lutheran Church, I confessed, “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” We believe in one Church? You could have fooled me. We believe in one Church? I think not. We were Lutherans and proud of it. We were not Baptist, or Methodist, or Episcopalian, and we were certainly not Roman Catholic—and proud of it.

Could Jesus have known how quickly his one Church would become his fractured and contentious Church—and proud of it? Before Jesus faces his betrayal and crucifixion, the last words we hear from Jesus are a simple prayer. “Father…the glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Anyone who knows me knows that I am Lutheran and proud of it. However, the time has past for the denominational arrogance with which I was raised. Jesus prays that within this Trinity Church you and I might be one with one another. Jesus prays that you and I might be one with all other baptized sisters and brothers in Christ. Any avoidance of other Christian denominations is simply sin. Any divisions you and I might cause or perpetuate among sisters and brothers of this Trinity Church is simply sin. If Jesus prays that we follows of his may be one, then failing to work for the unity of Jesus’ one Church is simply sin.

There is no sin, however, in disagreeing with other followers of Jesus. Much good comes in prayerfully listening to those with whom you disagree. First, however, you and I must listen to those with whom we disagree. The Holy Spirit has a way of often working best in those painful moments of disagreement and the insecurity that comes with it. When we Lutherans, however, disagree with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, or with our Baptist brothers and sisters, we should not talk about them. So that we might learn from one another, Jesus would have us talk with Roman Catholics and with Baptists and with any others whom Jesus calls into his one Church.

As Jesus faced his suffering and crucifixion, he prayed that we all might be one. Our world sees the one Church of Christ as one place in our world where there is no oneness. When you or I fail to discuss our differences with those with whom we disagree, when you or I work for disunity within the body of Christ rather than the unity found in Christ’s love for us, Jesus’ prayer for unity must be prayed even more.

Any divisions within the Church of Christ are your idea and mine—not God’s idea. Being a part of Christ’s Church, however, does not mean that you and I shall never disagree. If you and I are serious about following Jesus in these difficult times, hopefully, there will be different ideas and different insights in how best to be stewards of this creation God has entrusted to our care. Hopefully, there will be different ideas and different insights in how best to serve the Christ who called us to be his forgiving love in this place and time.

Jesus prays that you and I might be one in our faith and one in our life together. Talking about those with whom we disagree is not an option. Talking with those with whom we disagree just might bless you and me with new insight into Jesus’ will that all his baptized saints might be “one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” Within the one Church of Christ, our divisions and our denominations and our divisions of denominations are our ideas, not God’s idea. Our Easter hope is that as Jesus continues to pray that we might be one, Jesus’ Holy Spirit is at work in the midst of our divisions and disagreements to do what we have chosen not to do for ourselves. Our Easter hope of new life is a beloved Lutheran Church committed in a holy quest to take down the walls we have built between ourselves and our baptized sisters and brothers in Christ. Then, as one holy catholic and apostolic Church, we may pray with Jesus to be one with Christ in cross-like love. Then, we may live our Easter hope of a world without war, a nation of cross-like love, a parish of Christ-like forgiveness, and a unity in love still prayed for by the risen Jesus who promises us Easter hope and Easter new life.

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +

 
In the Name of the Father, and of the  +  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the Nativity of Our Lord, God took the experience of our humanity into the eternal “dance” of the Holy Trinity. In the ministry of Jesus, God’s Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth. In the cross of Christ, the ultimate power of evil was defeated once and for all time. In the Resurrection of Jesus, we see Jesus’ Easter promise of our own victory over the darkness of our own death. Your salvation and mine is complete. There is nothing more to be done that Jesus has not already done.

“[Jesus] led [his disciples] out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” At the Ascension of Our Lord, Jesus’ disciples did not stare up into heaven as Jesus left them alone forever. “[The disciples] worshiped [Jesus], and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.”

The Ascension of Jesus was the completion of Jesus’ ministry, and Jesus’ Ascension was the beginning of his disciples’ ministry. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples received the power and gifts of the promised Holy Spirit, the Church was born, and the disciples spread the kingdom of God throughout God’s world. Today is a reminder of our “marching orders.” Before ascending into heaven, Jesus said to his disciples, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in [the Messiah’s] name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my
Father promised.”

The work of our salvation is accomplished in the cross and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The work of the Church has begun in your Holy Baptism and mine. Today, we do not stare up into an empty sky as Jesus fades away forever. Today is not a day for Trinity Church to stare up into heaven wondering what to do until the next pastor comes.

You are witnesses of all that God has accomplished in the cross, empty tomb, and ascension of Jesus. God is calling you to fulfill the ministry of your Holy Baptism. Trinity Church and you have the confidence of knowing that the power of God’s promised Holy Spirit is at work in your midst. Jesus has ascended into heaven. Now, Jesus’ ministry is your ministry. Now, you are witnesses proclaiming Jesus’ call to repentance and proclaiming the assurance of forgiveness in the cross of Christ. The closest someone will come to experiencing the physical presence of Christ in his or her life is in you and in the ministry of which you are a part as Trinity Church. The Jesus who ascended into heaven is the same risen Jesus who promises to be present in your midst at every meal you share at Christ’s Holy Table. With all the saints who have gone before us, we worship Christ crucified, risen, and ascended.

Amen.

                                               John Joseph Santoro  +