WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 00:00:07.800 --> 00:00:12.900 Peace includes fellowship includes community. 3 00:00:14.100 --> 00:00:17.900 Fellowship. koinonia, community. 4 00:00:19.100 --> 00:00:21.600 We hear it three times in our text. 5 00:00:22.900 --> 00:00:27.900 And the word has taken on new meaning for us if we wants to community 6 00:00:27.900 --> 00:00:28.500 for granted. 7 00:00:28.500 --> 00:00:31.600 We take it for granted no longer. 8 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:36.800 We've all had a taste of what it means to be in isolation. 9 00:00:36.800 --> 00:00:43.100 In fact a few of us have literally been in isolation in the ISO dorm 10 00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:44.000 for a quarantine. 11 00:00:45.800 --> 00:00:49.600 But all of us have been isolated, distanced. 12 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:58.800 Might say asocialy distanced. Distanced from family from friends for a 13 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:01.500 time even from the normal contact 14 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:02.900 that one hasn't daily life. 15 00:01:03.800 --> 00:01:08.400 Distanced from gathering together as a community of faith as a church 16 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:09.900 distanced. 17 00:01:11.600 --> 00:01:14.300 And distanced is difficult. 18 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:20.200 We long for the handshake and I'm not sure we're ever going to get 19 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:20.900 back to that. 20 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:27.600 We long for the friendly smile, but now it's generally be hidden 21 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:28.800 behind one of these. 22 00:01:31.800 --> 00:01:33.900 We long for contact with others. 23 00:01:35.100 --> 00:01:41.100 For the warmth of a hug for an embrace for a shared meal for church 24 00:01:41.100 --> 00:01:41.300 potluck. 25 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:44.600 We long for community. 26 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.200 And this longing should come as no surprise. 27 00:01:49.900 --> 00:01:55.400 God has made you and me and all human beings for community. 28 00:01:56.500 --> 00:02:02.300 From the command to multiply in Eden to the Heavenly Jerusalem you and 29 00:02:02.300 --> 00:02:06.500 I and all human beings have been made for community. 30 00:02:07.600 --> 00:02:13.700 Each one each one of us is a zohan politicon. 31 00:02:13.700 --> 00:02:18.500 I have to use Greek cuz I think it's New Testament. Aristotle though a 32 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:19.700 political animal. 33 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.500 He's right there is within you and within me and with every human 34 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:28.300 being a longing for belonging. 35 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:32.600 But the question is where we belong. 36 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:38.100 Where is community true community to be found? 37 00:02:38.900 --> 00:02:42.600 The question has been with us ever since our expulsion from Eden. 38 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:45.700 And since that explosion 39 00:02:46.900 --> 00:02:52.200 we've been constantly tempted by the deceptive alternative of another 40 00:02:52.200 --> 00:02:52.600 community. 41 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.400 The community of the beautiful ideal. 42 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:00.900 The community that's not ready to wait for the Heavenly Jerusalem. 43 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:04.500 But wants to establish the kingdom. 44 00:03:05.600 --> 00:03:08.300 It's on Kingdom here and now on Earth. 45 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:12.500 A community of domination and oppression. 46 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:16.100 A community of exclusion of the other. 47 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.800 A community that is not able to love the enemy. 48 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:25.000 It can only see them as an obstacle to the ideal and must hate them. 49 00:03:26.300 --> 00:03:31.000 A community in which the story of Cain and Abel of which the Apostle 50 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:34.000 speaks in our letter is being repeated. 51 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:41.100 A story to which our culture at this moment comes dangerously close. 52 00:03:42.700 --> 00:03:45.000 Where is true community to be found? 53 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:48.200 The Apostle has a word for us. 54 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:54.400 Our community with one another he says is community with the father 55 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:56.900 and with his son Jesus Christ. 56 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.400 If we walk in the light as he is in the light. 57 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.600 We have Community with one another and the blood of Jesus his son 58 00:04:07.500 --> 00:04:09.700 cleanses us from all sin. 59 00:04:12.100 --> 00:04:13.800 You see true community is as a gift. 60 00:04:14.700 --> 00:04:19.600 Do we have community only as if we receive it as a gift? 61 00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:26.000 As Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us we can't come to one another 62 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.000 directly. 63 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.300 We must come to another through Jesus Christ. 64 00:04:32.900 --> 00:04:35.400 Any other way is blocked by our own ego, 65 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:37.800 our own dreams, 66 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:39.900 our own 67 00:04:40.900 --> 00:04:46.900 ideal beautiful community and all these must be shattered. 68 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:52.100 So that we may receive the real community that is given to us in Jesus 69 00:04:52.100 --> 00:04:52.800 Christ. 70 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:55.300 We confess this in the words of the Apostles Creed. 71 00:04:56.700 --> 00:04:57.900 I believe 72 00:04:58.900 --> 00:05:03.500 in the communion the community of the Saints. It doesn't say 73 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:09.700 we will establish the community of the Saints. It says 74 00:05:11.200 --> 00:05:14.800 I believe in the community of the Saints. 75 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:17.300 Community as a gift 76 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:22.300 and this gift is not only for the present it endures into all eternity. 77 00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:24.100 That's the good news of Easter, isn't it? 78 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:26.200 That's what we confess in the Creed. 79 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:33.100 The eternal life who was with the Father has been manifest and the 80 00:05:33.100 --> 00:05:36.600 community that walks in the light of Jesus Christ overcomes 81 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:37.600 not only distance 82 00:05:38.700 --> 00:05:39.700 but death itself. 83 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:44.000 It's good news. 84 00:05:45.400 --> 00:05:48.400 It's good news in the time of the pandemic. 85 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:52.200 It's good news for all time. 86 00:05:53.400 --> 00:05:53.900 Joy, 87 00:05:55.500 --> 00:05:56.700 joy in community 88 00:05:57.700 --> 00:05:59.600 even in the midst of Sorrow. 89 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:02.600 Bonhoeffer one more time. 90 00:06:04.200 --> 00:06:09.200 We have one another only through Jesus Christ, but through Jesus 91 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:09.200 Christ 92 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:11.600 we do have one another holy 93 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:14.000 and for all eternity. 94 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:16.500 That's good news. 95 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:19.900 Or at least it should be good news. 96 00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:23.000 Sometimes we're not so sure. 97 00:06:25.300 --> 00:06:28.800 After preaching one Sunday and standing at the door of the church 98 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:33.200 shaking the hands of the parishioners as they were filing out. Karl 99 00:06:33.200 --> 00:06:40.700 Barth, not our Karl Barth, but the other one, the Swiss one, was asked by one of them. 100 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:48.500 Professor Barth Professor Barth will we see our loved ones in the life 101 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:48.900 to come? 102 00:06:50.900 --> 00:06:52.300 Laconic reply, 103 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:54.600 Yes 104 00:06:56.100 --> 00:06:57.600 and the other ones too. 105 00:07:01.200 --> 00:07:04.600 And I can tell by the laugh we all have those other ones. 106 00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:10.200 That's the problem and we're part of it. 107 00:07:11.500 --> 00:07:17.200 But that is what it means to set aside our ideal community and to 108 00:07:17.200 --> 00:07:21.500 receive the gift of real community the community found in Jesus 109 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:22.300 Christ. 110 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:30.100 And the question is are we ready to embrace this real community in 111 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:31.900 which Christ has placed us here and now. 112 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:35.700 It's no surprise that the church is full of sinners 113 00:07:36.900 --> 00:07:41.600 doesn't take long to learn that. The wonder and it's a wonder that 114 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:44.700 should amaze us into all eternity is that this community of 115 00:07:44.700 --> 00:07:47.500 sinners is a community of forgiven sinners. 116 00:07:48.700 --> 00:07:51.700 Sinners made new in Jesus Christ. 117 00:07:54.400 --> 00:07:59.900 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our 118 00:07:59.900 --> 00:08:03.900 sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 119 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:12.000 The two belong together forgiveness and cleansing there two sides of 120 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.800 the same coin inseparable. 121 00:08:15.700 --> 00:08:19.400 And there are bound together in the confession of Sins. 122 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:27.400 The confession of sins while we know and practice it in confession and 123 00:08:27.400 --> 00:08:27.600 absolution 124 00:08:29.700 --> 00:08:33.000 public and private. In the sacrament of the altar. 125 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:36.900 In confessing our sins to one another. 126 00:08:39.500 --> 00:08:42.100 We know when we practice the confession of sins. 127 00:08:43.799 --> 00:08:45.100 But it never becomes easy 128 00:08:46.900 --> 00:08:49.300 and it never is behind us. 129 00:08:49.300 --> 00:08:51.900 We're never finished with it in this Earthly life. 130 00:08:51.900 --> 00:08:57.300 We return to our baptism again and again and again. 131 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:04.700 Our present life as Luther puts it is not a being upright but the 132 00:09:04.700 --> 00:09:05.800 becoming upright. 133 00:09:07.900 --> 00:09:13.500 Not a being healthy for the becoming healthy. Not being at all but a 134 00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:14.000 becoming. 135 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:19.000 Nothing and nothing blows and shines as it should 136 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:22.300 but everything is being purified. 137 00:09:22.300 --> 00:09:25.600 Everything is being polished. 138 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:32.500 The gift of community in Jesus Christ is the real community of those 139 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:38.500 who confess their sins receive the forgiveness of sins and are made into 140 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:40.500 new creatures everyday. 141 00:09:43.400 --> 00:09:47.200 And in this real community where Jesus Christ is present he is 142 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:48.900 present not merely for us 143 00:09:49.900 --> 00:09:51.300 but for the entire world. 144 00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:57.600 We hear this both at the beginning and at the ending of our text. 145 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:03.200 We announce these things to you says the Apostle so that you might have 146 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:04.400 community with us. 147 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:07.300 We write these things to you 148 00:10:08.300 --> 00:10:10.000 so that our joy 149 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:15.400 the joy of community might be made whole. 150 00:10:16.900 --> 00:10:17.700 And then at the end. 151 00:10:18.800 --> 00:10:24.900 Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice not only for our sins but also 152 00:10:24.900 --> 00:10:26.700 for those of the entire world. 153 00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:33.400 True community is not a closed circle. 154 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:37.400 It's an unbroken circle. 155 00:10:38.800 --> 00:10:45.000 And the circle will be unbroken by and by and into all eternity. 156 00:10:47.400 --> 00:10:49.200 But it is an expanding circle. 157 00:10:50.100 --> 00:10:56.100 It is the community of the open door, the open arms, the open heart. 158 00:10:56.100 --> 00:11:02.100 No one is excluded whether young or old black or white, 159 00:11:02.100 --> 00:11:07.200 Asian Or Hispanic or any other pairing you want to use. 160 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:15.400 All Nations, all races all cultures all persons in this community 161 00:11:15.400 --> 00:11:18.700 enemies are not the object of hatred 162 00:11:20.400 --> 00:11:22.400 they are the object of love and prayer. 163 00:11:23.300 --> 00:11:24.900 All are called the light. 164 00:11:26.900 --> 00:11:29.500 All are called to the shattering of their ideals. 165 00:11:31.100 --> 00:11:33.500 All are called to the forgiveness of sins. 166 00:11:34.900 --> 00:11:35.800 All are called 167 00:11:37.300 --> 00:11:39.900 to being made new in Jesus Christ. 168 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:42.700 It's the good news of Easter. 169 00:11:44.700 --> 00:11:48.200 The world is watching to see if we believe it. 170 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:51.900 Come House of Jacob 171 00:11:51.900 --> 00:11:56.200 let us walk in the light of the Lord. In Jesus name. 172 00:11:56.200 --> 00:11:57.100 Amen.