Today, though God’s Word, God continues to cause us to hear the eternal reality in the declaration that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father. That Word gives and strengthens faith. In that Faith, God empowers Christians to hold forth the good confession. That is, today, that Christs’ resurrection means that all the faithful have been declared right with the Father. We call that justification….For more, click on the title above.
Author: kyriss
Man’s complaint
A lament is a passionate expression of sorrow. It’s crying out in grief. It’s a complaint. That’s why there’s good reason the author of the book of Lamentations is called the weeping prophet. Jeremiah wrote the book to express the profound sadness, anguish, and despair that was before him. But to better understand the events that He and the Israelites in the Southern Kingdom went through we need to go back in Israel’s history about four hundred years. What was Jerusalem like at that time? …For more, click on the title above.
The Good Bloody Shepherd
If you haven’t figured it out yet from the name of this particular Sunday, Misericordias Domini, which translates to “the mercies of the Lord,” or from our Hymn of the Day, “The King of Love my Shepherd Is,” or the Hymn which will follow the Offertory, which we have noted as Good Shepherd Hymn, “The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want,” or from the Psalm appointed for this day, which is Psalm 23, or from the bulletin cover.….well, today is officially “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Our focus therefore will be on sheep and shepherds….For more, click on the title above
Come Lord Jesus, be our guest
Christ is Risen! This Resurrection Evening sermon’s theme has been drawn from the readings we’ve heard. It will be revealed in this Service that God has continues to answer our prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.” To that end, this Service does close the highest Feast Day of the year among us. It does so with the reminder that Jesus continues to make Himself known in the breaking of the bread… the Lord’s Supper… the Sacrament of the Altar. …For more, click on the title above
Another Resurrection Day
The apostle Paul writes,
“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”
But your sins are forgiven, and your faith isn’t empty. Your faith isn’t meaningless because Christ is risen, He is risen indeed, Alleluia. Your faith rests upon this proclamation of the Resurrection of the Lord. …For more, click on the title above.
I know that my Redeemer lives
The message of Good Friday is that Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God died for the sins of the world. All transgressions have been paid for by Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. The message of Easter is of Life in the Resurrection of the crucified Son of the Living God.
This has been the hope that God’s people have always had, believed and confessed. …For more, click on the title above.
Crown of thorns
To fully understand the Passion Narrative from the book of John we need to go back several chapters and pluck out a few verses. Just after Lazarus was raised from the dead we read,
“So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, ‘What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’” For more, click on the title above.
‘It is finished!’ God’s word for fulfillment for you
The readings for this day help to nail home the message of our recent Wednesday series: “Why Easter?” Then we heard Jesus give His answers as to why His baptized and rightly confessing people still celebrate the greatest of the Five High Feasts of the early Church.
Today, during the Great Triduum, we hear again from prophecy and from Jesus. Today, through the readings, hymns, and Psalm canticles, Jesus reminds us how He fulfilled His ancient Word concerning how God would rescue His people from the wages that their/our sins earn. Those, for all who don’t believe in the Christ of the Scriptures, are the second death and an enduring separation from God. …For more, click on the title above.
The blood of the Lamb
Thousands upon thousands of lambs—buckets upon buckets of blood—this is the history of the Passover. Long ago, in the land of Egypt, in a land of exile, in a land of slavery, the Israelites suffered under the iron fist of Pharaoh.
This line of pharaohs had forgotten the saving work of Joseph and how he had delivered Egypt from the devastating famine. They had enslaved the Hebrew people to do the pharaohs’ manual labor—to build their cities and erect their monuments. …For more, click on the title above.
Why Easter? To proclaim Christ crucified to forgive sin
We have heard three readings from Holy Scripture today, our Old Testament reading from Isaiah, the 2nd reading from the Book of Revelation, and the Passion reading from St. Luke. As we gather this day, it is appropriate that we focus on three points:
1. The betrayal of Jesus by his friend, Judas,
2. The vengeance that is yet to come upon the enemies of our Lord, and
3. To continue in our Lenten theme, “Why Easter?”
For more, click on the title above.