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These are the readings and sermons of St. John's Lutheran Church of Park Rapids, Minnesota.
They are offered so that the Word of God would shape and strengthen you to be what He calls you to be, salt and light.
You can find us at stjohnspr.org.
Now, on to the Word.
The first reading for the fifth Sunday of Easter is from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 6 and 7.
Now, in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables.
Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Canor and Timon and Parminus and Nicholas, the proselyte of Antioch.
And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.
The epistle is from the second chapter of the first epistle of St. Peter beginning with verse 2.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious,
you yourselves are like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,
and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession,

Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many rooms.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself,
that where I am, you may be also, and you know the way to where I am going.
Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.
How can we know the way?
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.
Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.
Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say show us the Father?
If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Christ is risen.
Hallelujah.
Stones, especially the bigger ones that actually we might even start calling boulders.
We love them or we hate them.
To the farmer in the field, there are troublesome source of broken plow blades
and other machinery habok, harvest delays and the like.
But to my family, those same stones were a treasure.
When I was in grade school, my parents finally finished off the basement in their house.
And my mom got to realize a dream she had had since she was little.
As part of their remodel of the basement, they built a field stone fireplace.
The stones came from a friend's farm and an expert broke them open
and put them up to make this beautiful fireplace.

and the glorious resurrection.
All of that was no accident.
It is the very reason Jesus came into the world.
His being the chosen one of God was to bring about the redemption of the world through his work.
His being the chosen one of God included his suffering, his death, and his resurrection,
so that he indeed might be the way, the truth, and the life as he proclaimed to his disciples.
Jesus being the chosen one of God meant that he would be rejected by men and acquainted with grief
because God was at work doing something greater in the midst of it all.
God was at work establishing a new living temple in the person of his son,
a temple not built by human hands, but one built by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' work for our salvation is the very cornerstone and foundation for this holy temple.
And this wasn't a, oh my, people messed up my creation.
Now what am I going to do? Kind of plan.
The Scriptures inform us that this is the eternal plan of God.

In the Old Testament, they pretty much had one specific job.
They offered sacrifices, and they offered a lot of sacrifices.
In the Old Testament, the priesthood stood before the altar of God and offered all kinds of sacrifices,
some of them being large like bowls, some of them being small like turtle doves, some of them being grain offerings.
In the Old Testament, God had it set up that the priest was mediating fellowship offerings between parties that had been at war and now are being reconciled.
The priest mediated the thank offerings, the first fruits offerings that were given as a celebration and a thanks to God for all that he had provided them with.
And now you, each of you individually, you are part of this priesthood now to offer spiritual sacrifices,
sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
So what are some of these sacrifices?
Well, again, one of them starts right here.
As we give up time in the world around us to gather together, to offer sacrifices of prayer and praise and thanksgiving.
In response to God's mercy, we proclaim His excellence leaves, or as the NIV translates it,
declares the praises of the one who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
In our verses, just before our text, Peter writes,
So put away all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
Part of our spiritual sacrifices is by daily repentance and contrition.
We put away the wicked thoughts of vengeance.
We put away the deep-seated resentments that can build up in us.
By daily contrition and repentance, we put away anger-filled conversations.
We don't pass on the latest and juiciest piece of gossip.
By putting away all thoughts of how unfair it is that,
Hey, have such and such and I've got nothing.
These are part of the sacrifices we are called to make all the time.
Or again, in the verses immediately following our reading, we give this general guidance.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh,
which wage war against your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable,

And then there's this.
When you realize and recognize how far you have fallen from living the holiness that you were called to,
then I invite you to again take some time away from the world
and gather around Jesus the living stone who was rejected by men but is precious in the sight of God.
Come to the place where God is present serving you.
Come to the place where you can freely say,
Oh boy God, I really messed it up as your priest this week.
I failed to do so many things and I did so many that you told me not to do.
And then listen.
Listen to the great good news
that Jesus is still serving as your Lord and as your Savior.
He is still washing you.
He is still forgiving you.
He is still strengthening you.
We probably don't even recognize that significance anymore, but it is a great example.
A great way for us to visually remember the work of Jesus, the foundation, the cornerstone of the temple
that he is still building today.
The temple that he is building until he returns and brings us to glory.
Amen.
Christ is risen.
Hallelujah.
Thanks for listening to Lightly Salted.
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God’s blessings