House Installation

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
          Tom, members of Redeemer Lutheran Church, friends and visitors here today, Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our text for this evening is one that we hear normally the Sunday after Easter, and is set on the very evening of Easter itself.  And our text presents for us a wonderful contrast.  There it is, Easter Day.  Peter and John have been to the empty tomb, they have seen the burial cloths lying there emptied.  And yet, what do we hear?  “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews…”  We hear fear.  Locked doors.  Terrified men.  Terrified men who see all around them danger and suffering and death and pain and sorrow.  Even as on the one hand the tomb is empty, there’s still that fear of danger and death that threatens to overwhelm them.

          This, dear friends, is the situation we ourselves live in now in this fallen world.  We know the tomb is empty, but what do we see around us?  Violence.  Wars and rumors of war.  Economic uncertainty, towns crumbling and decaying.  Culture falling apart.  And even if we try to circle the wagons, simply look at our own congregations, our own families, what do we see?  Fights, hurt feelings, pain, anger, failure, disappointment, arguments.  Or even if we try to circle the wagons even further, even if we ignore everyone else – what do we see when we look inside our own hearts?  Anger, fear, pain, sorrow, lust, greed.  Sin and death.  And so in many ways we are in the exact same position as those disciples there on Easter Evening – we see two realities – we know the Empty Tomb, but always threatening to overtake us, to overshadow that Empty Tomb is the world and Satan and our own sinful flesh, and we can be tempted to cower in fear, to lock the doors, to run and hide and simply wait for the end.

          That’s what the disciples were doing.  Simply cowering.  The world around them was too much for them, the events of Good Friday terrorized them, made them forget Maundy Thursday.  And so, as they sit there huddled in fear, what does our Lord do?  “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”  In the midst of their fear and sorrow, even as they are sitting there and thinking the world and sin and death is going to crush them once they manage to break through that door, Christ Jesus comes to them, and He blesses them, says to them “Peace be with you.”  Understand what Jesus is saying here – He’s no freeze dried hippie.  No, when our Lord says “Peace be with you” He is saying, “I know your fear, your sin, your terror, your doubt – and I cast it out.  Your sin is forgiven, your fears are conquered, your terror relieved, your doubt removed, and in their place I give you My peace, my security.”  “When He had said this He showed them His hands and His side.”  Look here disciples, were you worried about death, were you worried about what the world has done to me?  Take heart, I have overcome the world, and because I have died and have risen again your sin is forgiven, you are at peace with God, and you have life in Me. 

          And so of course the disciples were glad.  Of course they rejoiced.  That’s what happens when we hear God’s peace.  But now, what of you here, my friends at Redeemer?  What of you?  It’s nice that Jesus appeared to those disciples back then in the midst of their fears, but what about right now, what about this time, this place, what about 2012 here in Enid, Oklahoma?  “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.  And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.’”  When Jesus appeared to the disciples in that upper room near 2000 years ago, He knew that there was plenty of terror and sin and fear in the world, and so when He spoke Peace unto those disciples, He took them and He ordained them to be His own Apostles, to be those whom He would send out to speak forth His own forgiveness and peace to the world around them.  That’s what the book of Acts is – it’s a record of these mean speaking Christ’s peace and forgiveness.  It’s what the Epistles are – it’s these men preaching Christ’s peace to the Church scattered throughout the world.  And you here, you here at Redeemer Lutheran Church are part of that same one Holy, Christian, and… Apostolic Church.  Just as Christ Jesus sent out those Apostles to preach to the people in their day and age, so too, my friends, Christ Jesus has sent a man to you to proclaim His peace to you here.

          Tom, that is the charge and duty that is laid before you, the call that has been given to you.  That you are to stride boldly into the midst of this congregation, this community, and in the middle of all terror and sin and strife you are to with all boldness proclaim Peace.  To call sin to the carpet and to forgive people who desperately need Christ’s forgiveness.  As the Father has sent Christ, as Christ sent the Apostles, even so too He has sent you here to preach His Word of truth to these people He has entrusted to your care.  This is a joyous task, but it is also a weighty one, a heavy one.  We, your brothers in the office will support and encourage you in this, even as we ask that you will support and encourage us in our own duties in our own congregations.  For you will need encouragement.  You come to Redeemer at a time when they are on the edge of great joy.  A new pastor – and the celebrations that come with that.  A new and gorgeous sanctuary – and the right and proper celebrations that come with that.  And Octoberfest and Christmas in a new sanctuary, and all that joy and merriment.  But even with that joy – life out there will still be going on, still wearing your sheep down.  And then, there will come winter, and the Christmas decorations will be put away, and months of joy and excitement will have passed, and that worn and weary deflating feeling will return.  And people will feel all the more intensely the weariness and the fear that we face in this world.  Leading up to that, indeed, through that, through thick and thin, through whatever storms lash this congregation, through whatever trials and strife Satan sends this way – do what you have been called to do.  Speak the peace of our Risen Lord and Savior.  Do not give into the temptation to come up with your own wonderful plans and schemes – those are nothing but locking the door in fear, but rather with all boldness and with all love, preach Christ and His peace.

          And members of Redeemer, you too have a charge that is laid upon you this day.  You are vowing to receive this man as your Pastor – that you will listen to him as He preaches the Word of God in its Truth, that you will hear the peace that He proclaims unto you, and that you will support him as he does God’s work in your midst.  And this will not always be easy – and no, this isn’t me saying something about Pastor House, I love him like a brother.  It’s simply this – those disciples had heard that the tomb was empty, but they still decided to lock themselves in the upper room.  Fear and sin and our old sinful flesh have strong holds on us fallen men – and God has sent Pastor House to take on that sin, to call it out.  There will be times you won’t like it.  Pastor House is to be your teacher – and no student likes getting the test back with a bunch of red ink on it.  Pastor House is to be your spiritual doctor – and sometimes the Doctor will tell you things you don’t want to hear.  And in those moments your sinful flesh will want to lash out, will want to ignore him and stop up your ears, you will be tempted to lock yourself away from Pastor House and the Word of God that He preaches.  That’s just the way of it in the sinful world, and even we Pastors are not immune.  I know Pastor House and I have both preached sermons that make us squirm even while we were preaching them.  Do not give in to your sinful nature when you think of your Pastor, for God has sent Him here to preach God’s own peace to you, and that Peace drives out sin and terror and fear… the only problem is that often sin and terror and fear don’t like to go quietly.  So, do not ask Him to preach what you want to hear, some watered down feel good poison that pats your sinful flesh on the head and lets it be – no, be faithful Christians, and demand of Him that He preach the whole counsel of God, the Law in its severity, the Gospel in its sweetness, and support Him, pray for Him so that he doesn’t given into temptation himself and wimp out in his preaching, for in preaching the Word He is giving God’s care and love to you, He is giving you God’s peace.

          We live in a wild and wooly, sinful, fallen place.  But Christ Jesus your Lord knows that, and so, out of His great love for the members of Redeemer, out of His great love for you, Tom, He has called Pastor House here, to speak forth the same peace spoken by our Risen Lord and Savior, so that together, united in the preaching and hearing of God’s peace, united together in the distribution the reception of Christ’s Baptism and Supper, this congregation, pastor and members together, might stand and be a beacon of light and love and forgiveness in this community, giving forth Christ to sinners who so desperately need His forgiveness and peace.  Over and against the realities of Sin, Christ Jesus has sent this congregation a preacher, so that first and foremost you may see and remember that Christ has been crucified for those sins that pester you, that He has been raised to defeat that death that threatens you.  He made this congregation to be a place of peace, and He has sent to you a pastor to proclaim His peace.  Know that God will bless you in this, in your preaching and in your hearing; cling fast to Christ and His peace that He speaks here through His servant for His servants.  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +