We believe, teach, and confess that we should acknowledge the will and mercy of God in the Sacraments. From that, we teach that a faith that acknowledges mercy makes alive (therefore) the principal use of the Sacrament is to make clear that terrified consciences are the ones worthy of it… In part that is how a Christian rightly fulfills this call to worship:
All of you praise YH (I AM)!
I will give thanks to YHWH (Him Who Causes to Be) in all my heart;
in (a) company of upright men and (in an) assembly.
…For more, click on the title above.
Category: Sermons
In Christ Jesus God names you His Holy Ones
The All Saints Feast the Church celebrates today enter into the calendar over 1,600 years ago in the land of Syria. It was never intended to be a festival of or for the dead. Rather, All Saints is to be a feast of the the living! It is to be celebrated as a remembrance of God’s grace and mercy to all saints in heaven and on earth.
That is why the primary readings today begin with declaring God’s blessings concerning thousands of white robed saints. They are those who we may say are in the Church Triumphant.
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Sealed at the font
My dear friends: Life is like a pair of bookends. We all begin the same way: we are conceived. And what’s true for one is true for all: we are all conceived in sin. And the end comes in a thing called death. Death takes different modes. Sometimes it can be catastrophic, sometimes painful, often it’s just like falling asleep. But it’s still death. It’s the closing bookend. The final chapter.
Unless you are a Christian. The beginning is still the same. We are all conceived in sin. At that point, we are “one of the crowd.” …For more, click on the title above.
A hymn of comfort
“A Mighty Fortress is Our God” is based on Psalm 46, particularly verses 1, 7 and 11. Each of those describe God as our refuge and stronghold. This hymn has a long history within Lutheranism and is often called the battle hymn of the Reformation. But after hearing the whole text and the psalm you might wonder whether that is really the best possible description of the hymn and the psalm.
In the hymn, God is our mighty fortress because He helps us in every need. He fights the devil, who is too strong for us. He judges the devil and all his angels, who fill the world with woe against us, and He is with us with His gifts, that is the Sacraments, and His Spirit.
…For more, click on the title above.
Rightly calling on God in our day of trouble
The verse “If the world hates you, know that it hated me first,” is from our Gospel text appointed for this day as we celebrate the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude.
Let me be honest. That’s not a very uplifting verse to open a sermon on a festival day in the Church. However, when you compare it to our Psalm appointed for this day, it sounds rather tame.
Did you listen to that Psalm. I’m going to repeat some of the verses because I know that in a rather long reading it’s easy to be tuned out for a portion. The psalm opened with these words,
“Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!”
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God’s majestic name
This Sunday that lands in Michaeltide this year does include texts that reinforce the twin themes emphases for this subseason. They are, as many of you have heard repeated, endurance in the Faith of Christ, and Holy Baptism. Today’s Psalm can serve to remind us of those themes with words like these:
From (the) mouth of babes and sucking ones You have built strength because of Your foe, to cause to stop the enemy and adversary.
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The wedding garment
Hear again the Word of the Lord which commends itself to us today,
“for many are called ones, but few are elect.”
Jesus pronounces this statement to conclude the parable that you just heard read. It is a hard saying. It is made more so by virtue of the vehicle of delivery, a parable, in a series of parables. Many questions arise as we consider the Gospel reading. The broadest is, what does Jesus mean? Others follow: Who are the many? Who are the elect? Who is Jesus addressing?….For more, click on the title above.
Repenting and living the baptized life
The theme for this 19th Sunday after Trinity that focuses us upon our enduring in the Faith God gives through the water and Word is this:
Believers in Christ endure in the Faith as they continue repenting and
living the baptized life under God’s forgiveness….For more, click on the title above.
The Righteous Man
This time of year traditionally starts with the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. That was celebrated among us this past Wednesday. This year, to help us keep to the old pattern that guides the weeks of the Trinity Season, in order to give us enough weeks in Michaeltide, last Sunday we inaugurated this fourth section of the Trinity season. Today a different green is in the chancel.
That green, a take on olive drab, reminds us that we are still in the time to remember the growth and new life we have in Christ in the Church. This division of the Trinity Sunday readings emphasizes endurance in the Faith. …For more, click on the title above.
God’s Son who is eternally begotten for you
This week provides another opportunity this year to hear Psalm 2 as part of the Lord’s Services to us. In this place, its divinely inspired words that declare the Christ may be heard each Christmas Day, at the Transfiguration of our Lord, on Easter Tuesday, today, and during the minor Feast of St. Joseph. Psalm 2 continues to be proclaimed among us primarily because it is a thoroughly Christological text. That means that Psalm 2 declares Christ Jesus as King of kings!…For more, click on the title above.