Archives: Sermons

2-21-21 Invocabit

February 21, 2021
There is a character in one of Dostoevsky’s novels who finally convinces himself that God exists because he sees from the evil of the world that the devil must exist. The devil’s greatest lie has been to convince the enlightened world that he doesn’t exist. Because without the devil, without evil, people think they have no need for God, that they are gods themselves. This is the promise of Marxism and the communism so popular…

2-17-21 Ash Wednesday

February 17, 2021
Every Lent is a time to reassess our lives, the way we live, to realize that everything else is acting, an embarrassing show, except life lived under God and for heaven. This is what Jesus is saying when He warns against hypocrisy. The word hypocrite means actor. We could just as well translate Jesus’ words, Don’t be actors. Don’t act as if God doesn’t exist, as if He doesn’t see everything you say and do…

2-14-21 Quinquagesima

February 14, 2021
The Lenten season is approaching and we are making our annual pilgrimage up to Jerusalem where everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets has been accomplished. No longer is this saying hidden, but it has come to pass, and the apostles understand it, and we with them. For our Lord was delivered over to the Gentiles and was mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. After flogging him, they killed…

2-7-21 Sexagesima

February 7, 2021
When we think about power we usually think about force, about what we call active power, the power to compel and control. The government has power, because it has laws backed up with guns. And as the Holy Spirit says, if you resist its power, it doesn’t hold the sword in vain. In fact, the government is one manifestation, one instance of God’s power, as a force that compels. We see this power all throughout…

1-31-21 Septuagesima

January 31, 2021
Jesus presents working in the vineyard as a privilege. What else are you going to do? Sit in the marketplace with nothing to do, worthlessly whiling away the time? And it is a privilege to work in the church, which is what the vineyard represents. By work in the church I don’t mean what Pastor Richard and I do. I mean what every Christian does. We come to hear the Word of God every Sunday.…

1-24-21 Transfiguration

January 24, 2021
The season of Epiphany concludes today with the Transfiguration of our Lord. Throughout Epiphany we’ve been seeing more and more clearly who Jesus is. Today we hear the Father’s voice, once more identifying Jesus as his beloved Son. In addition to this we learn that Jesus is the Son of God who must suffer. In order to understand exactly what’s going on at Jesus Transfiguration, we must back up a chapter in Matthew’s Gospel. In…

1-17-21 Epiphany 2

January 17, 2021
We’re used to saying that Jesus’ turning water into wine in Cana of Galilee was his first miracle. The King James even translates it this way: “this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee.” But it’s not quite true. It wasn’t Jesus’ first miracle and the text doesn’t say it was – it says this was the first of Jesus’ signs, not his miracles. In fact, our Gospel begins with the words “after…

1-10-21 The Baptism of Our Lord

January 10, 2021
Jesus teaches us to value Baptism above everything in the world. It may seem silly, to so value water and words, to put so much stock in it, but then again, look at what the world values, look at what it puts so much stock in, look at what people occupy their minds with and torture themselves obsessing over, put it all next to Baptism, compare the two, and then you’ll see what’s really silly.…

1-3-21 Christmas 2

January 3, 2021
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 hears about Jesus, he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” When Nicodemus tries to defend Jesus to the Sanhedrin, they say with pure derision, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from…

12-31-20 The Circumcision and Name of Jesus

December 31, 2020
Originally, and in all the ancient service books, January 1 was the octave of Christmas, Octava Domini. Then, as now, however the day was a popular holiday marked by dancing, masquerades and general pagan gaiety. Councils of the church in France, Spain and Italy found it necessary from the fifth century to forbid the participation of the faithful in these celebrations; to order them instead to attend church; and finally set the day as one…
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