God’s Name is holy among us. From the prelude music through the words of today’s public order of service, in hymns, and especially through the proclaimed Bible readings for the day, God is continually sanctifying His Name among us. That teaches that we, dear Christians, are living in the times foretold by the prophet Ezekiel. …For more, click on the title above.
Category: Sermons
Red breaks into the whites and gold of the Easter season
This Sunday Rogation (that is, prayer) day has been handed down to us through faithful generations of the members of the Church. This prayer day has existed in faithful congregations throughout some 1,700 years. It can be used to establish a time of fasting before the Great High Feast that celebrates Christ’s Ascension….For more, click on the title above.
Ascension is not departure
The Feast of the Asension is a celebration of Jesus’ ascension into the heavens, and His return to the Father in glory. We give thanks that Christ is exalted and reigns in full divine power as He sits at the right hand of God. As we await Jesus’ glorified, bodily, and visible return from the heavens, we pray that Jesus’ continued presence in Word and Sacrament continually dwells in our hearts and minds….For more, click on the title above.
Ask in Jesus’ name
A beautiful mystery in the making
Jayne, Paul, and all whom God has gathered to rejoice at this wedding feast: we are here to continue to give thanks to Him for this union He is making. United by God’s Word, we join in the joy that accompanies their marriage. We are grateful to God that their union is even now being sanctified by God’s Holy Word. It is wonderful that we are present to behold a beautiful mystery in the making….For more, click on the title above.
The promise of the Comforter
Many of you heard this past Sunday that that was the day the Church Year readings remind us to sing a new song. That theme is meant to be carried through this week. We are to hear and participate in the new song of Salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus. The united Voice of the Church continues to be lifted up in thankfulness and praise to God, for the Lord has taken our sorrow upon Himself. Having been delivered from sadness, God grants the joy that may continue in the faithful no matter what life in this world may bring upon the Church and her members. …For more, click on the title above.
People called to beautifully sing in joy with one voice
This is the day the Church Year readings remind us to sing a new song. That is the Song of God’s salvation that is ours in the Christ of the Scriptures. The reading from Isaiah reveals to us four characteristics of those who know and believe that God has saved them in Christ Jesus. Those in that state of mind and body, you we pray, the saved, receive from that Divine Salvation trust with security, an end of fear concerning their eternal destinies, strength—a fruit of trust, and song, that is, an inner welling of joy on account of that which the Lord has done, and still does, for those whom He has saved. That is what these words reveal….For more, click on the title above.
Christians will have joy after they depart the pain of this cosmos
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.
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