Category: Sermons

Be of good courage, your sins are forgiven

Arise, Take Your Bed and Walk by Yongsung Kim

Be of good courage, your sins are forgiven! Today we sinners who have responded to God’s call to come to Him for rest and peace have neither neglected nor despised His Word. That is one reason why you each and all are present in this His Divine Service.
As part of our response to and preparation for hearing God’s Word, we have collectively prayed that God would, for the sake of His mercy, be gracious to us. In that, we were echoing the unspoken petition of a paralytic and those bearing him before Jesus long ago. …For more, click on the title above.

Hidden Teachings

The Pharisees and the Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus by James Tissot

Jesus indicates that there is not one greatest commandment but two commandments which not only sum up the teaching of God in the Old Testament but form the heart of all biblical teaching. Why is it these two commandments are singled out? Are these commandments Law or are they Gospel? If they are Law, do they stand against Christ and His Christians to condemn first Christ as He would hang upon the tree or the Christian as they fail to live up to those commands? …For more, click on the title above.

What is true humility?

2023 Lutheran Women in Mission Sunday Logo

Through means, through His Word and Sacraments, the Lord wills to lift us up from any worldly, demonic, or fleshly pressures that tempt us to sin. As we respond to His faithfulness, He keeps us faithful through our regular reception of His Means of Grace. As we continue to partake of them we continue to learn what humility before God and neighbor can be. So, what is true humility?
Jesus, the Lord God Incarnate, gives the answer to that question. …For more, click on the title above.

Death, now God’s servant

Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son from Nain from the Codex Aureus of Echternach

Our liturgy praising the God of Light is contrasted, in today’s reading, with a liturgy of darkness; our multitude’s joy with one’s weeping; our thanksgiving at receiving the things of God with one’s supplications at a nearly unfathomable loss – as God has received back the soul of an only son. Death is not natural, nor does it come from nature. Death is not a “fact of life,” as if a natural termination – a period at the end of a sentence. Jesus does not bear with death. Our God has no patience for death. Death is God’s hated enemy. They are not adversaries, one warring against the other, rather, they are opposites. Death is the opposite of our God and He hates it….For more, click on the title above.

With Jesus, there are only the sick

Symptoms can lead to, or be an indication of, something much worse. So, we can’t always treat the symptoms like we do an annoying noise in the car. You all know how you treat that, right? You turn the radio up until you can no longer hear the noise. There are times when we have to dig deeper and find the underlying problem.
In our Gospel reading appointed for this Festival of St. Matthew, where we hear the call of Matthew and the subsequent dinner held at his house, there’s a sneaky symptom that shows up. …For more, click on the title above.

Christ’s faithfulness frees believers from anxiety

Consider the Lilies from Holdman Studios

The sainted Matthew, a former tax collector, is the one whose writings and life set this week’s sanctification themes. Those were given to the Church long ago in order to help center us this week on Christ Jesus. They serve to make this a St. Matthew week in the Church.
What that means is that not only is today’s Gospel reading publicly proclaimed from his inspired work, so will be Wednesday’s. The mid-week celebration will, we can be confident, reveal Jesus’ concern for those who hear His Word, confess their sins, and follow Him. It will again reveal that, no matter how great the sin a sinner has committed, by God’s grace, through His Word, such a one can be turned from sin and be freed to live new life by following Christ Jesus. …For more, click on the title above.