Once again, worship has been cancelled at Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lindy. I truly hope that winter loses its grip. Such snowstorms in April are not unheard of in this part of the country, but this year has been worse than any in recent years in terms of lingering winter weather. So, I have posted what I had planned on preaching.

Thomas E. Jacobson
Third Sunday of Easter
April 15, 2018
36 As {the eleven disciples and those who were gathered with them} were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them. 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” - Luke 24:36-49
Dear congregation, of all the things that you expect to hear about in church on a Sunday morning, you wouldn’t expect to hear a ghost story.  But that’s what you get from Luke chapter 24 on this third Sunday of Easter.  Well, sort of.  It’s not your typical ghost story, and you’ll find out why.
Ghost stories fascinate people.  Children on camping trips love to hear ghost stories.  They like the mystery, the intrigue.  Even though they know they’re going to be scared, they can’t resist a good ghost story.  When I served as a summer camp counselor at different Lutheran church camps when I was in college, one of the rules was that we couldn’t tell ghost stories to the kids.  Most of the kids would be fine with it, but there are some who would be frightened, and it would ruin their whole experience at camp.  It would leave them restless, without peace.  And I say this with all humility, because I used to be afraid of ghost stories when I was a child too.  One evening, I watched an episode of the television show Unsolved Mysteries that talked about ghosts haunting the old ocean liner ship the Queen Mary.  I was so scared that night that I hardly slept.  That ghost story left me without peace.
Without peace.  That’s really the key to understanding most ghost stories.  Not only do such stories scare people and leave them without peace.  The stories themselves are often of people who are without peace in their lives.  Ghost stories differ a bit from each other, of course.  But most of the time, they involve someone who for whatever reason, died with unfinished business.  They died before their time, before they could accomplish what they set out to do with their life.  And so their spirits are restless, without peace.  And they haunt places that were known to be important to them.
In these weeks of the Easter season, we hear stories of Jesus appearing to his followers after he had been raised from the dead.  And you need to put yourself in the shoes of those disciples of Jesus.  Remember that they knew what had happened to Jesus on Good Friday, how he was crucified, died, and was buried in the borrowed tomb.  They didn’t expect to see Jesus again.  And so when they see Jesus standing before them, what do they think?  But [the disciples] were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.  Other translations “they thought they saw a ghost.”  You can translate that word either way.
So they think that Jesus is a ghost.  And who could blame them, really?  It seems much easier to think that someone is just a spirit.  It’s much more neat and tidy.  They don’t have to deal with flesh and blood and bones.  If Jesus was just a ghost, then it means that he’s not really with them.  He’s just a distant memory.
But no.  Jesus won’t let them get away with that.  Jesus wants those disciples to know that he’s there for real.  He’s there, flesh and blood and bones and all.  See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  And Jesus takes it a step further. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them.
Jesus is there in the flesh.  He’s no ghost or spirit.  He really did suffer, die, and was buried.  And on that Easter Sunday morning, he rose from the dead.  He shows them his hands and feet, which were pierced by nails on the cross.  And he takes the time to eat a piece of broiled fish with his disciples to show them that he’s no ghost.  He’s there in the flesh.
But what difference does it make? I have heard a lot of people over the years give lengthy speeches trying to convince people that Jesus really rose from the dead.  They want people to believe that the message of Jesus being raised from the dead was not a hoax perpetrated by his followers.  And the arguments that they give for believing that Jesus rose from the dead are good ones.  I don’t disagree with them.  But it raises the question: Why does it matter?  Why does it matter if Jesus is a ghost or if he’s with the disciples in flesh and blood?
You can tell the difference in how Jesus behaves.  Most of the time, ghost stories are about people who die with unfinished business.  And because of that, they are without peace.  And so they spend eternity haunting the old locations where they used to walk.  Their goal in death is to rob the living of a sense of peace, to scare them, to haunt them, to bring them to despair.
But you see how different Jesus is.  If you remember from back in Lent and Holy Week, I talked about how Jesus did not leave his work unfinished.  In fact, according to John, Jesus said from the cross as he was dying, “It is finished.”  His work was done.  And so when Jesus came back after he was crucified, died, and was buried, he didn’t come back to haunt his disciples, to get back at them for the cowardly way they abandoned him.  Unlike a ghost, Jesus wasn’t there to haunt their dreams, give them sleepless nights, and take their peace from them.  Instead, he’s there to give them peace. 
He makes a simple statement of fact.  Your translation this morning says “Peace to you!”  And that’s right.  He’s not wishing for them to have peace.  As he stands there in flesh and blood, he wants them to know that because he is flesh and blood, because of the pains that he endured on Good Friday, in him, who was crucified, they have peace.  Jesus isn’t some ghost, some distant memory of a person long past.  He’s here in flesh and blood.  He’s here for them.
But that also makes things uncomfortable and awkward for those disciples.  For them, even though a ghost might scare them, take their peace away, it would be easy for them to ignore and look at what happened to Jesus as something in the past, not something they have to deal with anymore.  But when Jesus stands in front of them, flesh and blood and bones, complete with the nail-scarred hands and feet, it’s not something they can ignore.  It forces them to realize that they were partly responsible for what happened to Jesus, for the pain that he endured.  They had to face the reality of their sin, their failings, their shortcomings.  But along with that, Jesus brings the most important message: “Peace to you.”  Forgiveness and reconciliation is there for those disciples.  And it’s there for us too.
In the early years of the Christian Church, the idea that Jesus was just a ghost was popular.  People didn’t want to face the reality that Jesus actually died, partly because they thought it was crude that God would lower himself in such a way, but also partly because people didn’t want to admit that it was their sin that was responsible for the nail-scarred hands and feet.  Those people were called “Docetists,” meaning they believed that Jesus just appeared to be human, but was really a ghost.  But those Docetists took the power out of our faith.  For we have a God who indeed lowered himself to us and for us, who was crucified, died, and was buried, and who descended into hell for us, and who rose from the dead for us.
Jesus desires to give us peace, peace with God so that we are no longer enemies in rebellion from God, but instead return to Him who is the source of our life.  And so Jesus shows his disciples his wounded hands and feet to show them that their rebellion as sinners is over.  God has given them peace through Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
Jesus doesn’t walk among us in flesh and blood in the same way that he did with those disciples long ago.  But you notice something in this reading about how Jesus promised to be with his people into the future.  Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
Jesus opened the minds of his disciples so that they really understood the Scriptures, the Bible, which for them would have been our Old Testament.  He revealed to them that the Old Testament, the Bible, communicated the message about Him.  And he told them that they would continue to be witnesses to the rest of the world about what He had done, the work that he had accomplished for the salvation of the world.  And that testimony became the New Testament.  And so when we read the Bible, we believe that God is continuing to speak to us, to connect us to his saving word.
As Christians today, we continue to live in the joy of Easter, the good news that Jesus has done for us what we can’t do ourselves.  We rejoice in God’s salvation.  I pray that we all remain connected to God’s message to us contained in the Scriptures, our Bibles, and that our lives as individuals and as a congregation continue to be conformed to His, who is our salvation, the one who came to give us peace, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.   
  

I established this blog a few years ago with the hope that I would update it regularly and frequently. However, the many responsibilities of life have kept me from this. My children have continued to grow and have remained healthy. We also have a third child on the way, likely arriving in late August of this year. As much of a blessing as children are, they do require a great deal of attention. I have also been occupied with my part time pastoral call at a small Lutheran congregation in northern Nebraska, a wonderful group of people. I have also been doing some part time teaching through the online-based Institute of Lutheran Theology.

​The other thing that has consumed much of my time and attention is the research and writing of my Ph.D. dissertation. I began my doctoral program in the history of Christianity back in the fall of 2010 at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, the same institution where I completed my M.Div. degree back in 2006. Given my focus on Norwegian-American Lutheran history, there really is no better place for me to have carried out this work, given the history of that school. The library and archive are excellent and will continue to be important for me in my future work.

​This degree has taken me longer to complete than I originally planned, but as they say, "life happens." We have had a great deal of transition as a family, which has all been positive, but it has kept me from focusing my energy on this project exclusively. Nevertheless, I have kept plugging away at this dissertation, and my formal defense was held a few days ago, on April 6, 2018, which also happened to be the anniversary of my baptism.

​The title of my dissertation is "Hauge's Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod in America and the Continuation of the Haugean Spirit in Twentieth-Century American Lutheranism." It explores the history and unique identity of the small Hauge's Synod and the ways in which its members continued to express themselves after the Norwegian Lutheran merger of 1917.

​My defense was successful. My committee had some good questions to ask, but two hours went by quickly and painlessly. They appreciated my work, and in the end decided to grant me the degree "with distinction." Honestly, I was not expecting that.

​Official graduation will not be held until May 20, but nevertheless many people have begun addressing me as "Dr. Jacobson." I guess I'm OK with that, but it doesn't do much to change my immediate circumstances. I am simply grateful to God and everyone who has helped me along the way, and I know that the purpose of my education is to be a blessing to others and to God's Church.