Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, I’m Matt Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Blessed Easter
to all of you. St. Paul wrote in Romans chapter 4 “Jesus Christ was put to death for our
transgressions and raised for our justification.” We’re here deep in the heart of north St.
Louis in a rather challenged neighborhood to visit one of my favorite spots in St. Louis
Lutheranism. This is Immanuel Lutheran Church, founded in 1847, the same year as the synod.
It was a bunch of people that broke off from Dr. Walther’s church, Old Trinity, to move
a church up here. [pause]
One thing I really love about Immanuel is this fantastic mosaic. There’s Christ, the
Pantocrater, the risen Christ ruling through all eternity, the orb of the world firmly
in his left hand, the blessing, the right hand lifted ready to bless with forgiveness
and life, the cherubs on either side worshipping Him, the Alpha and Omega, the eternal One,
a glorious depiction of the Christ indeed. But in this life, we don’t always see the
glory. In fact, we won’t until the last day.
[pause] Tragically, Immanuel Lutheran Church, the
second oldest Lutheran Church west of the Mississippi, left the Lutheran Church Missouri
Synod in the terrible and tumultuous times of the 1970’s. This old disheveled cemetery
and Immanuel behind me remind me that in this life, the glorious resurrected Christ, His
church is hidden under difficulties, crosses, trials and divisions and nevertheless, He
is the Resurrected One. He is risen and because He is risen, our sins are forgiven.
There is a beautiful passage, several of them, in Francis Pieper’s doctrinal text. It’s
Francis Pieper’s Christian dogmatics. Every Missouri Synod pastor has studied this text
for his basic Christian doctrine. Pieper says of the resurrected body that “we, like Christ,
will have perfect immortality, strength and beauty because sin, the sole cause of decay,
weakness and ugliness is completely done away with.” First Corinthians 15, “It is sown
in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.” The language of heaven will be a celestial
tongue, once heard by the apostle Paul in paradise, the like of which earth does not
know.
And finally, on just about the last page of his great doctrinal text, Dr. Piepers says
“the gospel of the crucified Christ has never been popular with the world. It’s
always been this way and will continue to be this way till the end of time. It is a
stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.” 1 Corinthians 1. “However,
Christians do not grow faint but rise above all these tribulations. In all these things,
we are more than conquerers through Him who loved us.” If they do not take their eyes
off the heavenly inheritance but follow the example of the apostle who says in 2nd Timothy
1, “I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him until the last day.”
Blessed Easter to all of you. A blessed Easter knowing that Christ is the God of the living
and of the dead and a resurrection is coming and blessed Easter to you, Dr. Pieper.