Service Type: Feast Day

4-6-23 Maundy Thursday

April 6, 2023
Paul’s passionate defense of the Gospel ends with a passionate appeal to love one another. Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Do good to all, especially those of the household of faith. There were those who accused Paul of preaching against good works, against love, because he insisted that our good works and our love don’t save us. It happens every time you faithfully preach the Gospel. It happened to…

1-1-23 Circumcision and Name of Jesus

January 1, 2023
Names are supposed to mean something and in the Bible they actually do. Today people pick names for their children because they like how they sound or because it’s a family name or because it’s a Norwegian name and they’re Norwegian or a German name and they’re German. But in the Bible names mean something. Look at Abraham – it means father of many nations, so that every time that name Abraham was spoken the…

12-25-22 Christmas Day

December 25, 2022
Glory to God in the highest, who made Himself lowest and for us men and for our salvation took the form of a slave! The Lord has fulfilled His ancient promise. The Seed of the woman has come. The Virgin conceived and bore a Son, and He is Immanuel, God with us. And not just God with us, but God as one of us. This is a great mystery, one into which angels long to…

12-24-22 Christmas Eve

December 24, 2022
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. The year was 2BC. That’s two years before Christ, which is ironic, that Christ is born two years before Christ, but all that means is that a monk got the dating a couple years off. The fact is that all time is measured by Jesus. We are in the year 2022 because…

7-24-22 Feast of St. James the Elder

July 24, 2022
Today we celebrate the feast of St. James the Elder, Apostle of our Lord. Now it’s been a little while since we’ve commemorated one of the saints, so it’s worth noting first of all why we do so. The Lutheran Reformers explained this well in The Apology of the Augsburg Confession in the Book of Concord: “Our confession approves honoring the saints in three ways. The first is thanksgiving. We should thank God because He…

4-15-22 Good Friday (Chief Service)

April 15, 2022
Jesus says to the women who are following him and weeping as He bears his cross to Calvary, “Do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves.” Don’t pity me, pity yourselves. So it will do us no good to feel sorry for Jesus today. Martin Luther particularly insists on this: Jesus’ suffering is no spectacle to make us cry at the injustice, to make us pity a poor man suffering unjustly. We can read Oliver…

4-15-22 Good Friday (Tenebrae)

April 15, 2022
The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It was Peter’s flesh that talked big and announced his bravery, that he would stand by Jesus to the end. He wasn’t insincere. He was overconfident in himself – the vice known as temerity – but he wasn’t insincere. He was serious. He drew the sword and struck off Malchus’ ear. He was, as he said, ready to die for Jesus, ready to fight to the…

4-14-22 Maundy Thursday

April 14, 2022
This day is called Maundy Thursday. The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means “commandment,” because on this day Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Now in a sense, the command to love is not new. Love has always been the summary of the Law: “You shall love the Lord your…

11-7-21 All Saints

November 7, 2021
The world claims to be very reasonable. It boasts in science, facts, empirical evidence, and says it will only believe something if it can be proven. The world claims to be very reasonable. Yet how unreasonable the world is in the face of death. When it comes to dead loved ones the world becomes downright superstitious. All Saints’ Day gives us a good opportunity to critique the world’s opinions about the dead, and talk of…

10-31-21 Reformation

October 31, 2021
504 years ago today, Martin Luther posted 95 theses against the sale of indulgences on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. Powerful people, bishops, pope, emperor, commanded Luther to retract what he wrote or die. But Luther wouldn’t, because Luther had a higher authority. His Lord Jesus. His Word, the Bible. The emperor could take his bodily freedom, but Jesus had already set his conscience free from all sin. The pope could put…
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