Posts with the category “sermon”

Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.One memory I have of my visits with Carol in the last three years came to mind while I was reading her obituar...  Read More

Truly today we continue to celebrate that Christ is risen from the dead. Our Lord has died and risen again for our salvation. Not only have our sins been taken away on the cross, but our Lord has seal...  Read More

It is amazing how everyone in the gospel accounts of the resurrection seems completely floored that Jesus actually rose from the dead. They heard his promise many times, he openly told them in three d...  Read More

St. John mentions several times that Jesus dies on the Jewish Day of Preparation. What is the day of Preparation? Well, when God created the heavens and the earth, he created in six days and on the se...  Read More

What’s the point of the Lord’s Supper? Why do we come here and partake? We know this bread is the very body of the Lord, and this wine is the very blood of the Lord. We know that in these we have forg...  Read More

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” If the people of the city of Jerusalem had known scriptur...  Read More

Many events, especially in the last two years, have served to challenge our normalcy bias. It is possible, with wars and rumors of wars, that it will be challenged even more in the future. Normalcy bi...  Read More

It’s hard to consider that people may not like us. We generally want to be liked. We assume that if someone doesn’t like us it’s a misunderstanding on their part, or maybe a bad impression. If they re...  Read More

Jesus had taken three disciples, Peter, James, and John, up on a mountain, and then was changed before them as his face and clothes shone with a bright light. Moses and Elijah also appeared and spoke ...  Read More

There was probably yelling, pushing, screaming children, people talking among themselves, all sorts of chaos. In the midst of this chaos is Jesus, ready to have compassion, ready to satisfy this huge...  Read More

Monarchies have a singular worry that we never experience in our modern democracies – the stress over the king’s heir - especially traditionally when the birth of a son was needed to continue the fami...  Read More

The Christian life is a life of humility. This is a fundamental part of the Christian life, for to be Christian is to be like Christ. Christians are “little Christs” and as St. Peter says we follow “i...  Read More

Jesus drives a demon out of a mute man, a great work of healing, and yet some of the people accuse him of working by the power of Beelzebub. Who is Beelzebub? He is their name for the prince of demons...  Read More

We have all heard the story of Noah’s ark and seen children’s books with the cute animals and such. God flooded the earth because of man’s wickedness, but preserved righteous Noah and his family in th...  Read More

St. Paul speaks to the Thessalonians about their sanctification, that they become holy as God is holy. Many of the Thessalonians were Gentiles and did not grow up with the Old Testament or the Law of ...  Read More

St. Peter calls us Christians “sojourners and exiles.” We are not in the place where we are truly from, where we are supposed to be. He recalls the memory of the ancient Judahites who went into exile ...  Read More

The first lesson in the catechism is the First Commandment, and hopefully all the confirmation students here should have this learned by heart, “You shall have no other Gods.” As you know from the exp...  Read More

Why not be a hypocrite when you fast? Of course, no one wants to be known as a hypocrite, but Jesus doesn’t give instructions about hypocrisy for everything. Matthew speaks about hypocrisy in prayer, ...  Read More

What would you say if Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”...  Read More

Jesus tells a parable of the sower who sows one seed in four different places. Only in the good soil does the seed grow into a plant that yields a harvest, but in the good soil it yields a great harve...  Read More

Jesus Christ has given you good work to do, and all by grace. While you did not deserve to do anything but idle without any meaning, He has brought you into his vineyard to work, to do something that ...  Read More

Jesus is made manifest in His Transfiguration. The Transfiguration is the final Epiphany on the final Sunday of the Epiphany season. Peter, James, and John, led to the top of the high mountain, see Je...  Read More

Faith is trust in Jesus, and you should be careful not to hear this passage outside of faith. Outside of faith, the eyes are the ruler. The eyes say, I see everything is good and fine in my life, ther...  Read More

In football, a long pass to the endzone, usually end of the game is called a “hail Mary” or sometimes “throwing up a prayer.” The idea is that of taking one last shot to win, looking more to providenc...  Read More

The miracle of the water into wine may be one of Jesus’ strangest miracles. It is completely unnecessary for Jesus to do. This isn’t Jesus cleansing a leper who has been suffering his entire life, or ...  Read More

JESUS comes to John in the wilderness to be baptized by him. John refuses. He has been giving a baptism for repentance of sins. John knows that Jesus has no sins to repent of. John knows that Jesus h...  Read More

Has God forgotten us? The Magi’s visit to the Christ child is great with their expensive gifts, but it means that now Jesus, the true King of the Jews, has come under jealous Herod’s radar. It seems e...  Read More

Tonight’s sermon, is the last sermon you will probably hear in the year of our Lord 2021, as tomorrow begins the year of our Lord 2022. That is what A.D. means on our calendar, the Year of Our Lord. F...  Read More

The problem when we read a great martyrdom account like that of St. Stephen, is that we think we cannot relate, as we have never been persecuted for our faith. Our lives can seem petty and insignifica...  Read More

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This creation of God in the very beginning, God’s absolute creation from nothing, was formless, empty, and dark. It was uninhabitable by anythin...  Read More

After 400 years of silence, 400 years of no words from the prophets, the Savior is here, Christ the Lord. This Christ was foretold from the very beginning, the seed of the woman who would crush the se...  Read More

In modern American Christianity, a testimony is often what one person tells another person, usually a friend or acquaintance, about what God has done for them. Sometimes it can be a long story about h...  Read More

Who is a God like you? As we hear the final sermon this Advent season from the prophet Micah, we end with Micah’s statement, who is a God like you? He is the God who forgives sin of those who repent a...  Read More

Rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice! So begins the introit today on the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete – or, Rejoice! All you blind, rejoice, for you will see! All ...  Read More

Why Bethlehem? Of course, you’ve heard the Christmas songs, you’ve heard of Bethlehem, the place where Jesus is born. What is so special about Bethlehem? Well, outwardly, it’s about as special as Tamp...  Read More

Jesus’ second coming might be the topic that attracts Christians’ attention the quickest....  Read More

At a time about 250 years after Solomon and 700 years before Christ, the people of God are divided into two kingdoms – Israel and Judah. While Judah has Jerusalem, the temple, and thus the place of tr...  Read More

Here, in the first week of Advent, our gospel lesson takes place at the beginning of Holy Week....  Read More

Four hundred years ago this year the Pilgrims at Plymouth colony held their harvest feast which came to be known as the first Thanksgiving. With the help of the local Indians, their settlement began t...  Read More

“Wake, awake for night is flying!” the watchmen on the heights are crying, “Awake, Jerusalem arise!” Wake, and be watchful, for the bridegroom is coming! Get ready! This is what Jesus’ parable tells y...  Read More