Holy Week traditionally has begun with Processionals such as today’s. Such Holy Week Palm Processionals were drawn by the faithful from Christian schools. They moved them into the Lord’s Services back in the high middle ages. Processionals served to remind those who bear God’s Name that the Day of Christ’s Triumphal entry into Jerusalem began to publicly, outwardly, reveal the Truth of His Kingdom and how it was to come into the world….For more, click on the title above.
Author: kyriss
The confession of the centurion
Our question on this day is what turned this Caesar-loving soldier into a soldier of the cross? What made this man, about whom legends have been told, turn from unbelieving defiler of the Holy One to a worshipper of the One True God? The synoptic gospels treat this confession a little differently according to who it is that’s telling the story, and, of course, their audience. Now, that doesn’t make one story true and the others false, and it doesn’t make one any truer than the others. It’s a matter of perspective and context….For more, click on the title above.
Gentiles’ confessions of Christ: The Ethiopian Eunuch
As you had opportunity to hear last week, the Wednesdays of the 40 days of Lent this year we have been hearing from the Scriptures of Gentile confessions of Christ. During the last few weeks, you heard of the good confession made by a woman at a well; a jailer in Philippi; and an exorcized demoniac. Today, you are hearing of the good confession, and its result, from an Ethiopian eunuch. Next week, you will hear, God-willing, of the powerful confession of a Centurion made from the foot of Jesus’ cross. All of these occurred on account of Jesus displaying His life into death concern for the salvation of all people….For more, click on the title above.
Rejoicing in the midst of a penitential season
As part of that which many of you have learned, this Sunday has historically been called, Laetare. That is the first word of the Latin language Introit Psalm. It is one which is usually rendered in English, Rejoice!
Therefore, in the form of a “Little Easter,” we begin another week of rejoicing in the midst of a penitential season. That serves to let us take a breath in our deeper contemplation of our sins and, from that, our need for the Savior. It also points us to the “Big Easter,” that is coming. It is on the journey to that through which the Church Calendar has just passed the half-way point. …For more, click on the title above.
Blessed to be hearers and guardians of the Word
. Jesus, through today’s Gospel reading, reveals that hearing and keeping the Word are the vehicles by which God the Holy Spirit sustains God’s people in the Faith, that is, in the state of blessedness. The Spirit desires to move the hearers of God’s Word, you, from the proclamation of the Word into continuing to want to learn to rightly divide it. The Holy Spirit wills to use your continual hearing of God’s Word to move you to desire to learn more from it. That is what it means to guard the Word for the precious treasure it is….For more, click on the title above.
Heathens become Christians, Christians raise Christians
At first, it might not seem particularly impressive that there are so many gentile converts, after all, what difference does it make whether someone was a Jew or Gentile whether God would convert them? A fairly big difference, as a matter of fact. The distinction between Jew and Gentile was not, after all, just a racial distinction. Rather the distinction was between believer and unbeliever. Generally when the Bible refers to gentiles, it refers to not just unbelievers, but unbelievers who descend from a lineage of unbelievers, and live in a society of unbelievers. Think about the term “Gentile” as you might use the term “secular”, or pagans, or heathens….For more, click on the title above.
Jesus: The Way and the Truth and the Life
Today, in a penitential season of the year, God has gathered us to hear of the One Who bore sin into death, the One Who was raised to everlasting life to grant true hope and peace to all who believe in Him. Now, we remember God’s faithfulness in calling Maxine Wirth to eternal life in Christ. Hear Jesus speak to us again as we remember the Faith God gave and sustained in Maxine throughout her mortal life and into everlasting life:
I AM the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one continues to come to the Father except through Me. …For more, click on the title above.
High Noon
Throughout this Lent we are looking at various Gentile Confessions of Christ. First stop: Jacob’s well in the village of Sychar. It’s high noon, the sixth hour. Jesus is hot, tired, and thirsty. The disciples went ahead to the town and get some food and so the only one there with Jesus is this Samaritan woman. And a conversation ensues…For more, click on the title above.
Christ’s victories over temptations common to man
The First Sunday in, but not of, Lent begins this day in the Church as it has for centuries. That is, the faithful, you, continue to hear proclamations of Christ’s victories over temptations that occurred in a wilderness long ago. On Lent I, the Son of God’s besting humankind’s old evil foe is declared.
Out of that eternal reality, we are called again to remember that Jesus’ facing and victorying over temptation happened just before He began His earthly, incarnate, public ministry….Fore more, click on the title above.
Called by Jesus to turn one’s heart focus from self to God
Our sermon for this Ash Wednesday has been drawn forth from our inspired readings. In them, today, you are being called by Jesus to turn your heart focus from self to God. This day, we pray that your heart-thoughts would be guided by the following dynamically translated verse:
Where your treasure remains, there your heart remains. …for more, click on the title above.