Sermon for Easter 7: "Words of Life"

 + 7^th Sunday of Easter – May 17^th, 2026 +

Series C: Acts 1:12-26; 1 Peter 4:12-19, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

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

 

Biologists will tell you that cells, DNA, and proteins are the building blocks of life.

 

Farmers will tell you that good soil, water, and sunlight are needed for growth, for life.

 

And yet, there’s something more than molecules and particles that holds life together. Something much older and ancient. Something sacred. Holy. 

 

Words. Words give life. Our whole world hangs on a word. That first, “I love you.” The announcement from the doctor, “It’s a girl! It’s a boy!” That moment when time stands still until she says, “yes, I will.”

 

And if our words are able to bring such moments of life and love and laughter, how much more so do our Lord’s words. Before there were atoms and amino acids there were words. Our Lord’s word. “Let there be.” And there was.

 

The Holy Trinity is the inventor of words. God is a divine wordsmith. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the wellspring of words. And our Lord’s word gives life.

 

Creation begins with our Lord’s word. All things are made through the Word of God. Creation is upheld by Christ’s word of power. So it’s not surprise that when the Word is made flesh, when the Son of God takes on our humanity, he also speaks our language. Jesus delivers to his disciples, and us, his word of life.

 

I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

 

When Jesus prayed these words in his high priestly prayer. On the night he was betrayed. On the night before he spoke his final words on the cross. He spoke these words to the Father, but also for his disciples. And for you.

 

These are more than ordinary words. Jesus’ words are life, for his disciples, and for you.

Jesus’ words bring life to a man’s lifeless legs. 

Jesus’ words send demons running in fear.

Jesus’ words hushed the wind. Stay the storm. Whisper peace to the waves.

Jesus’ words bring healing, holiness, and honor to the sick, the unclean, and the ashamed.

Jesus’ words raise dead Lazarus.

Jesus’ words pull Peter and Thomas and the fearful, doubtful disciples, out of the darkness and into the new creation.

Jesus words’ deliver what he promises: peace. Forgiveness. Grace and goodness. Truth and beauty. 

 

This was true for Jesus’ disciples. They spent years hearing Jesus’ word, memorizing, Jesus’ word, learning, marking, inwardly digesting Jesus’ word. And then they were given a vocation to speak and deliver and proclaim Jesus’ word.

 

This is what our catechumens have been doing these past several years. What we should be doing in all our years, no matter our age. Sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his word. Dining at his table where his word is our daily bread; where bread and wine are full of body and blood and promise.

 

The truth is, confirmation isn’t the end of your time as a disciple, but the beginning. Confirmation is a boot camp preparing you for the war of words that is the Christian life. Your Small Catechism is your field manual as a soldier of Christ. The Scriptures are God’s word, and your sword and shield. 

 

Do not let it grow dull or dusty or rusty. Rather, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest our Lord’s holy words. 

 

Because if you haven’t figured this out yet, you will soon enough. Words are unavoidable in this world. But not all words are created equal. Some words offer death disguised as beauty. Poison parading as pleasure. False and wicked words dressed up in their Sunday’s best. The kinds of words that worm their way straight through your ears into your heart and mind and soul. And there in the dark they twist and turn; they curve you inward, and finally, slowly, step by step, word by word, whispering you away from Jesus’ words of life. 

 

The question in this life is never whether or not we will hear words, but whose words will fill our ears? 

 

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

 

And remember, while Jesus uses ordinary words, his words are anything but ordinary. 

 

The Lord who says, “Let there be light,” also says, “let there be life,” baptizing you with word and water into his holy name. 

 

The Lord who told the demons to eat dust also raises you from the dust and ashes of repentance by his word of forgiveness.

 

The Lord who rebuked the wind and the waves, speaks his word of redemption into our storm-tossed hearts and minds.

 

The Lord who healed the sick, made the lame to walk, and raised the dead, speaks his absolution to you every Sunday and you are healed, you are holy, you are pulled out of the grave. 

 

The Lord who called forth Lazarus from the tomb will one day stand over our grave and call out our names and call us into his new creation.

 

The Lord who speaks this prayer to the Father still prays and pleads and intercedes for you with his blood. By his grace. With his word. 

 

The Lord who sat and taught and ate and drank with his disciples, promises he is present with us here at his table, in his body and blood. You have his word on it.

 

Every day. Wherever you go. In all your callings in life… Jesus’ word is your life.

 

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

Sermon for Easter 6: "Another Advocate"

 + 6^th Sunday of Easter – May 10^th, 2026 +

Series A: Acts 17:16-31; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

 

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

 

In the beginning, the Lord declared everything he made to be good. Creation, with its greater and lesser lights, its flora and fauna, its creeping things that creep on the ground. Finally, on the 6^th day of creation, the Lord declared it all that he had made not only good, but very good. There was, however, one thing that was not good in Eden. It was not good for the man to be alone. So God made Eve as a helpmeet and companion and wife for him.

 

From the beginning, where God gave Adam and Eve to each other as husband and wife in the garden, to the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation, God’s grace is our constant companion, and in his compassion he creates us to be in communion, in fellowship with him and with one another. 

 

God patterns our earthly lives after his own mysterious, eternal life and being. God himself is an eternal communion: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the eternal three in one. 

 

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. 

 

What’s true of Adam and Eve in Eden is true for Jesus’ disciples and for you. It’s not good for us to be alone.

 

For when we’re alone, we are the sheep that stray and wander from our Shepherd. 

We’re Israel in the wilderness, grumbling and complaining and longing to return to slavery in Egypt. We’re Cain living East of Eden, with a heart full of murder and hands stained in blood. 

We’re Israel in the days of the Judges, each of us doing what is right in our own eyes. 

We’re David, full of lies and lust and love of self. We’re the dead, lifeless bones Ezekiel saw decaying in the valley. 

We’re there with the disciples in the upper room. Afraid. Dismayed. Bewildered. Betrayers. Alone. Worried. Sinners in need of rescue. The guilty in need of an advocate. The helpless in need of a Helper. 

 

It is not good for us to be alone in our sin. 

 

So what does our Lord do? For us, he is no fair-weather friend. Jesus is faithful. The friend of sinners. Our advocate. 

 

The Good Shepherd who leaves the 99, pulls us out of the wolf’s jaws, throws us on his back and carries us home. Jesus is our Passover Lamb who was sacrificed to set us free from slavery, sin and the serpent. Jesus is our brother whose blood speaks for us a better word than the blood of Abel – pardon. Forgiveness. His life for our life. Jesus is the one who does what is right in the Father’s eyes for you. Jesus is David’s son and David’s Lord and our faithful King, crowned in thorns and blood and robed in all our lust and lies to save. Jesus breathes his life-giving breath on his disciples, and upon you, raising your from the dead by His life-giving Spirit.

 

What Jesus promises, he gives. What we lack our Lord supplies. The comfort and help we can never seem to find on our own, Jesus delivers. The Holy Spirit, the other advocate we need, Jesus sends.

 

It’s not good for us to be alone. So Jesus sends another Helper. Another Advocate. Defender. Comforter.

 

When Jesus sends his Holy Spirit, splashing into our lives and hearts and minds in Holy Baptism, you are given the holiness you lack. You are given a holiness you did not earn or deserve. That’s what makes God’s work grace. Gift. The Spirit, and fruits of the Spirit and life by the Spirit…freely given to you in Jesus.

 

When Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit, we who were alone in death and darkness and the dungeon of the grave are made and declared to be a new creation by water, word, and the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit who hovered over the waters of the deep in the beginning, makes you a new creation and a new beginning in Jesus. 

 

When Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit, our lifeless, dead, decaying bones are raised from the dust and the ashes. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live

 

Jesus sends his Spirit not only do the work of God for his disciples - comforting them, strengthening them, encouraging them - but He will also do the work of God through them. He will dwell with them and be in them (14:17). The Spirit will lead them to keep the commandments of Jesus. The sacrificial love of Jesus becomes the sacrificial love of His disciples and the world will know God’s people by the love they have for one another and for the world (14:12, 15, and 21; cf. 1 John). “I will not leave you as orphans” Jesus promises. I will come to you.

 

Our Lord knows that it’s not good for us to be alone. So until the day of our Bridegroom’s return and the return of the King and the marriage supper of the Lamb, our Lord sends the Holy Spirit

 

Who points us to Christ.

Who consoles us in the cross and resurrection of Christ.

Who intercedes for us through the blood of Christ.

Who hallows us in the name of Christ.

Who dwells with us and for us and in us filling us with the love of Christ.

Who instructs us in the Scripture of Christ.

Who enlightens us, enlivens us, and encourages us in our daily callings in life in Christ.

 

Jesus sends his Spirit to you still. 

To comfort you in the cross of Jesus. 

To strengthen you in his Word. 

To point you, like a good hunting dog, to the word and water and body and blood where Jesus crucified and risen abides with you and for you. 

 

It’s not good for us to be alone. And in the Father who sends His Son, in the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son to you and in you, you are never alone. 

 

 

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

 

Sermon for Easter 5: "The Way"

 + 5^th Sunday of Easter – May 3^rd, 2026 +

Series A: Acts 6:1-9, 7:2, 51-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

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

 

When Jesus says, “I AM the Bread of Life,” your nose remembers the smell of a fresh-baked sourdough and you can imagine Jesus’ words.

When Jesus says, “I AM the Vine.” Your tastebuds recall the rich, full-bodied, well-aged wine and you can picture what Jesus is saying.

 

But what about when Jesus says, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life”? How do you imagine that? 

 

One way to understand Jesus as the Way is by walking along the pathway of a good story. 

 

In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Silver Chair, a little girl named Jill Pole finds herself in the magical, imaginative world of Narnia. Early on in this story, she finds herself lost in the lonely, quiet woods of Narnia. Eustace her friend had fallen over a dreadfully tall cliff, and she was all by herself. Afraid. Bewildered. And terribly thirsty from crying. She soon discovers a stream. But there’s a problem. A lion (the great lion, Aslan) stands between her and the water.

“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.

“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.

“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”

“There is no other stream,” said the Lion.

 

For Jill (and everyone else in these stories), Aslan is the way. And the only way to life is through the Lion.

 

So it is for us, only not in a fairy tale, not a fantasy, but in truth and life and reality: Jesus, the Lion of Judah, is the Way. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Door, is also the Way. Truth. Life.

 

There is no other stream. No other road. No detours. No HOV, toll roads, or express lanes. 

 

When it comes to Truth and Life, there is only one way. By the time Jesus says this in Holy Week, he has already told his disciples time and again exactly what his way is and where his way is headed and what it means that he is the Way. 

 

His road and journey leads straight ahead to Jerusalem. To the place of the skull. To the cross. To his bloody death, to his becoming sin on a cursed tree. This is the way of Jesus. The way of his disciples.

 

And yet, Thomas and the disciples don’t understand this yet. They will, but not until his cross and resurrection shed light on the path. Jesus’ disciples think it’s a one way trip into Jerusalem. Jesus will be killed and that’s it. End of the road. Dead end. “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 

 

This is the way it is for sinners apart from Jesus. Thomas and the disciples aren’t alone. We’re right there with them. Confused. Bewildered. Scratching our heads. Lost and wandering in our own thoughts. Apart from Jesus and his dying and rising, the way, the path, the road to God is not only closed, it’s impossible to find. 

 

Apart from Jesus, our Old Adam is a drunkard wobbling down the hallway, staggering from one wall to the other. Separated. Lost. Estranged. Cut off. And the worst thing to do when you’re lost is to try and find your own way out. But that’s exactly what we love to do.

 

Our Old Adam thinks himself a master architect, an award winning engineer, always building new roads to God, creating endless detours around God’s ways, laying tracks in every wrong direction. 

 

We build our own towers of babel. We stoke the forges hot for our golden calves. We’re constantly turning back to Sodom and Gomorrah. 

 

If we’re to be rescued, God must accomplish it.

If we’re to be set free from slavery, God’s truth must ring forth in our ears.

If we’re to be delivered from death, God must give life. 

 

And he does. He promises.

For we who are lost, Jesus goes the way of the cross.

For we who are lost in lies, Jesus is the Truth enfleshed. His word of truth sets you free.

For we who are lost in death, Jesus lays down his life raise you out of dust and ashes.

 

There is no other stream. No other way. For no other way saves. In Jesus the Way, in his dying and rising, here is Truth and Life.

 

Jesus goes the way of the cross for you. Jesus goes to Jerusalem, not on a dead end, road to nowhere, but a round trip, up on the cross, down into the grave, and out alive again. Do not be afraid. Let not your hearts be troubled. Jesus carries you along his way.

 

When we find ourselves sitting with Thomas and the disciples in fear, uncertainty, and confusion, Jesus leads you this way. Jesus carries us along the way, as he makes the way for us upon the tree, into the earth, and out of the grave again.

 

When we find ourselves standing alone in the woods with Jill Pole, lost, alone in our sin, and dying of thirst, Jesus the Lion of Judah stands between us and the water and says. “There is no other stream.”

 

Come on in, the water is fine. Drink deeply. Draw from the well of salvation. Swim in the rivers of redemption. 

 

Jesus knows you’re dying of thirst, so he quenches it with the cup of his own blood. He knows your starving for salvation, so he feeds you his own body in the bread. 

 

I AM the Way, and I have found you; you are mine. I AM the Truth, and I set you free. I AM the Life, and I have conquered the dragon and the grave for you.

 

 

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