Posts with the tag “luke”

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

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

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

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

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

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

We know hypocrisy in others when we see it. We see it in the TV preacher who acts holy but seems most interesting in getting his viewers’ money. We see it in the politician who rails against the rich ...  Read More

What is our great enemy in this life? What threatens all of us? Death. Jesus confronts death....  Read More

Truly God wants to strengthen us, heal us, and give us every good thing, for He is our loving Father. But he does not want us to depend on our own strength. He calls us baptized to the Lord’s Supper, ...  Read More

As Jesus taught, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Wo...  Read More

Have you cared about a place so much you would weep to see it go? Jesus, having entered the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, now weeps over it. Jerusalem was never His home. He was not born there, th...  Read More

One of the biggest obstacles to faith in the Christian life is thinking that God is like us. We may think God is better than us in every way, but still fundamentally He acts like we do. We can see thi...  Read More

On this July 4, perhaps some of these complaints of Elijah feel like they ring true with you. People are divided, they don’t recognize God, everything seems to be turning away from God’s word. And yet...  Read More

As we are given the command, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful,” the disciples, students, of Christ are expected to become more like God in mercy as they follow Christ. The mercy which Chr...  Read More

When Jesus comes, everything gets cleaned up. When something is not getting done which needs to be done, you take it into your own hands. That’s what Jesus does. This is what makes the Pharisees grumb...  Read More

A man prepared a party and no one showed up. What a terrible circumstance, it’s one that people have stressful dreams about. It’s one thing to ask for a favor, like helping you move, and no one wants ...  Read More

Jesus presents this story of two men, the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man has what the world would consider the perfect life. Lazarus has what the world would consider a wretched, awful life. One m...  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 a formless mass uninhabi...  Read More

A popular ethical point of view today is that “the ends justifies the means.” That is to say that any action taken is ok as long as it is working toward a good end. Coupled with this is the common vie...  Read More

We often think of Peter’s first sermon as the one at Pentecost. After the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples, they see tongues of fire above them and begin to speak in many languages. Peter then pre...  Read More

This love that would lead to martyrdom is the one that early Christians recognized as something worth remembering. For Christian love is nothing less than the work of the very love of Christ in the pe...  Read More

This day, exactly forty days after Christmas, brings us a great lesson capping off the very end of the Christmas season. In this final account of Jesus’ birth and early years, the scriptures give us a...  Read More

There is an odd trend of people treating the year 2020 itself as if it were a person who brought about all these problems....  Read More

“Fear not!” Cries the angel appearing before the shepherds. Why does the angel cry this? What is there to fear with angels?...  Read More

Two of the readings for today describe names being written – one in the book, and one in heaven. These are one in the same. Those whose names are written in heaven, in the book of life, are those who ...  Read More