Bible Text: Matthew 2:13-23 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Christmas 2020 | He shall be called a Nazarene. And he was. It’s remarkable to see what contempt is poured on Jesus because He grew up in the backwoods town of Nazareth in Galilee. When his own disciple Nathanael
Bible Text: Luke 2:1-20 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Christmas 2020 | Heaven was opened that first Christmas. Everything that belonged in heaven was suddenly on earth. The glory of God shone round about them, the angels filled the air, music meant for immortals struck their ears, and
Bible Text: John 1:19-28 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Advent 2020 | The name of this Sunday, the Sunday right before Christmas, is Rorate Coeli. It’s a beautiful name, because it expresses exactly the significance of Christmas. Rorate coeli are the first words of our Introit in Latin,
Bible Text: Matthew 11:2-11 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Advent 2020 | Among those born of women there has arisen none greater than John the Baptist. If St. Paul can say, I am not aware of anything against myself, John the Baptist could say it a thousand times
Bible Text: Luke 21:25-36 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Advent 2020 | We’re used to hearing about the world being evil here in Church. I preach it. Pastor Richard preaches it. The Bible preaches it. Jesus says, “In the world you will have trouble.” He calls the devil
Bible Text: Matthew 21:1-9 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Advent 2020 | The time will come, and it’s sooner now than when we first believed, when Christ will come in splendor and power to free His Church from every evil of body and soul. We confess every Sunday
Bible Text: Luke 17:11-19 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | It seems 2020 has given us more reason to complain than give thanks. The prayer of most is that God mercifully end this year as quickly as possible. We should be careful what we ask for. There’s no promise that
Bible Text: Matthew 22:15-22 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | St. Paul reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus is our King. He has already conquered. His is a victorious Kingdom. It won’t fall and it won’t fail us. The gates of hell will not prevail against it.
It is heavenly when brothers dwell together in unity, as our Gradual says. It is hellish when they envy one another and hold grudges and refuse to forgive. This is what Jesus means when he speaks of hell as weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is the devil’s great aim, especially in these last days, to pit us against one another, to make us refuse reconciliation, to hold grudges, to withhold forgiveness from our brothers in the Kingdom of heaven. The world attacks us, entices us, lies to us, and we suffer this together, we must suffer it together. And we suffer it together strong and united, only when we rely on the forgiveness won by our Lord Jesus’ blood and given to us freely here in Christ’s Church, when this forms our faith and so our lives. Without this forgiveness, the wolf will scatter the sheep and there will be none to deliver. We rely on it completely. And if we are to meet the years ahead together, we need to live in forgiveness for one another. This is why Jesus tells us the parable he tells us today.
Come to the feast, the Lord says. He sends his servants out to invite the whole world. So, it’s not men and women and boys and girls who invite him into their hearts and their lives, it’s He who invites them into His. We need to reverse the vocabulary of our current American Christian scene; this talk of us inviting Jesus into our hearts. You won’t find the Bible talking that way. Instead, Jesus is consistently the inviter and we are the invitee. Come to me, He says. Come to the feast, He says.
