Our Lord’s ascension is a continuing celebration of His incarnation. It celebrates that Jesus, true God of true God, became man. Jesus became man to save us from our sins. But it was more than that: He also came to raise us up in Himself, all so we could share in God’s divine nature, as […]
1 Peter 3:13-22: Confessing and Defending the Faith
May 25, 2014 by
In today’s Church, probably for about the last 200 years, we’ve often heard about Christian “witnessing,” telling others about Jesus, and how every Christian is supposed to be a witness. Yet, that’s not true. But hear me out before you brand me a heretic. For what I’m going to share with you comes from the […]
Exodus 29, 1 Peter 2:9: You are a Royal Priesthood
May 18, 2014 by
If you and I were living when Jesus still walked the earth–and if we were Jews, we could go into the Temple. Now, Gentiles couldn’t, but Jews could. Yet, even being Jews, we still couldn’t go all the way into in the Temple. We’d have to stop halfway through the Temple, where we would come […]
1 Peter 1:17-25: Loving Others with a Pure Heart
May 4, 2014 by
What is love? How would you define it? If we were to ask people that question, many, maybe most of them would say, “Love is a feeling,” and then go on from there. But with God, love isn’t a feeling. With God, love is a verb, an action. For “God shows his own love for […]
John 20:19-23: Jesus Still Speaks His Forgiveness Today
April 27, 2014 by
The Lenten season is finished. And yet, we don’t move on to something better, even though we have broken our Lenten fast with the Easter feast. For what can be better for us than Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes our sins away? In our Gospel reading, we find Jesus still fresh from […]
Christ is risen! John 20:1-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
April 20, 2014 by
Christos anesti! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia! From St. John’s Gospel and the other gospel writers, Mary Magdalene, with some other women, went to the tomb early in the morning of the first day of the new week. In the dim, gray light, they wondered how they would move the stone away […]
Good Friday Sermon: Isaiah 53:3-7
April 18, 2014 by
We live in a market-driven, entertainment-fixated world. Shallow, entertaining sound-bites have replaced deep reflection. And in such a world, Good Friday is not merely a misstep but a different dance altogether: God’s dance of death to give us life. Nothing is entertaining about the cross. Drawing a smiley face on the cross does not change […]
Maundy Thursday Sermon
April 17, 2014 by
Today, we rarely use the word “mercy” in our everyday speech. But in the Church, it’s as common as the air we breathe. We pray in the liturgy: “Lord, have mercy on us.” When we do that, we echo the blind men who sought physical sight from Jesus in Matthew 9 and Luke 18. For […]
Matthew 21:1-11: Jesus Still Comes to Us
April 13, 2014 by
People confess what is within them by what they do. People show what they believe by what they do with their hands, feet, and head. For example, when a Lutheran kneels at the Communion rail, he confesses that before him is God, Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine. Look at what people […]
Psalm 22:6-8: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
April 9, 2014 by
All true Christians trust that Jesus is pure and holy. But not everyone agrees. And it was the same at Calvary, 2,000 years ago. Those who passed by that day, hurled their insults at Jesus, shaking their heads and mocking Him: They said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. So he’s the king […]
