Allen Lunneberg

 

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Text: Luke 1:39-45
Date: Advent IV + 12/20/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Who was or were the first to worship the Christ Child? Not the wise men of the Epiphany which could have been as much as months or even years since His birth.  Not even the angels or the shepherds of Christmas Eve, nor even Mary or Joseph. It was Mary’s relative Elizabeth when the Incarnate Word had barely, newly come on the scene, becoming incarnate in the womb of His mother Mary. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed in the fruit of your womb.” “And blessed is she who believed that there will be fulfillment for the things spoken to her by the Lord.” That’s liturgical, worship language, that is, the language of praise at the awareness of the real presence of God working and speaking right in front of your eyes. (I mean without that spiritual awareness the liturgy in itself is no worship). It is the language of praise blessing God who has blessed Mary and, thereby, the whole world in sending His only Son; sent not as a mighty warrior or heavenly apparition, but as a human being, the offspring of the woman—Eve and Sarah and Hannah and Ruth and Mary, mother, fair maiden, full of grace, according to “the things spoken by the Lord.” (more…)

 

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Text: Luke 3:1-6
Date: Advent II + 12/6/09 (12/7/03)

Christ came for one purpose: as the world’s Savior from sin. John came on the scene for one purpose: to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Anyone who would follow Jesus, then, does so because they have been made aware of the slavery of their sin and of Jesus as the only One who can free us from sin. The baptism of John that prepares the way by repentance is completed in the baptism of Jesus that brings the forgiveness of sins. (more…)

 

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Text: Luke 19:28-40
Date: Advent I + 11/29/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Probably the most important and most unknown and unexpected aspect of the Gospel of salvation is the fact that people think they have to somehow look for God, try to find God, or come to Him. The surprising truth is, however, that God is the One who looks for you, who finds you, who comes to you. People really don’t get that, or agree with that. This is true of the beginning of the life of faith in a person as well as its continued life in authentic worship where the issue is never about us doing something for God, and certainly not about us doing something just to entertain ourselves, but is all about listening to God and receiving God who comes and speaks, who blesses, forgives, feeds and sends us. So also then with the end of faith. At death or on the Last Day, we are not shot out into an out-of-body experience to appear before a mysterious God all the time wondering what the final verdict with be, rather the Lord comes to us individually to receive us to Himself because we belong to Him already and, at the end of days, He comes with glory to raise us from our graves and judge the living and the dead. He already knows His own and His own know Him. There are no surprises with faith other than the sheer beauty and joy of it all. “Advent” means “coming,” God coming to us. Advent: God has come to our world, in our geography and history and time in the Person of His Son, born of the Virgin, crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, risen and ascended into heaven. Since then, Advent: God continues to come to us in His Word and Sacraments by His Spirit. And finally, Advent: God will come again at the Last Day. So we emphasize and describe the Savior’s three-fold coming on this First Sunday in Advent by meditating on His “Triumphant Entrance” into Jerusalem at the beginning of the Great and Holy Week as recorded by St. Luke. For it’s all summarized there: the Lord’s first advent, the incarnate, in-the-flesh Messiah named Jesus; the Lord’s coming to individual hearts by faith in Him; and the majestic accolades due to the King of Glory and of eternity. (more…)

 

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Text: Luke 1:26-38
Date: Advent IV + 12/21/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

It’s not Christmas yet. It’s still Advent. In today’s Gospel there are still nine months to go. First there is John the Baptist, then Jesus, six months apart. It is the sixth month with John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, when the angel Gabriel “was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.” Galilee, Nazareth, virgin betrothed, Joseph, house of David. Did you get all that? Are you confused yet? The angel told Mary that she has been blessed and favored by God to serve as the mother of the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God whose name will be Jesus. (more…)

 

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Text: John 1:6-8, 19-28
Date: Advent III + 12/14/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In your little catechism you learned to confess the truth, in part, in the words, “I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.” You should know that not a few Christians of other denominations and certainly people in general find that a shocking statement with which they most vehemently disagree. You learned that this is because of the fallen, sinful nature of us all born into this world spiritually blind and dead. Spiritual blindness demonstrates itself in everything from the demand for some credit of cooperation of the human will to at least some extent, working your way to salvation by doing enough good works, to just complete ignorance of anything to do with God or things spiritual. (more…)

 

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Text: Mark 1:1-8
Date: Advent II + 12/07/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

When the very first word of St. Mark’s Gospel is “Archai” (as in the word archaic), “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he means for his readers to recall the very first words of the Old Testament scriptures, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). For what he here begins to write about is as cosmic and awesome an event as the very creation itself. For it is nothing less than the salvation and beginning of the re-creation of all things. And what Mark is here writing is as true and inspired of God as those ancient words penned by Moses in the Pentateuch.

This is the beginning of the “gospel,” the good news of God initiating the rescue and salvation of His creation enslaved as it is by sin, death and the devil. It is really good news, as Jesus said, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17), for God is love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:8, 16). (more…)

 

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Text: Mark 11:1-10
Date: Advent I + St. Andrew, Apostle Day + 11/30/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Having been given another day before the Lord’s final coming or Advent, we must therefore assume another day may turn into another week, another month, another year. And so Holy Church begins to tell the whole story of God’s love for His fallen world, in an orderly way, all over again. And just as Thanksgiving Day parades mark the beginning of some sort of official countdown to Christmas in our American society, so the Lectionary, the appointed scripture readings of the Church, mark the beginning of a new liturgical year with a parade, the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Like a movie trailer Advent lets us view the basic highlights of the Gospel before the movie begins:

(Imagine dramatic music in the background, quickly changing clips of various scenes before our eyes, and a deeper, bass, almost sinister voice, saying:) Jesus’ Shocking Final Coming on a day that cannot be predicted. Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem—the parade that ends in tragedy. Finally, the ancient and touching account of the little infant son of Mary of Bethlehem—Is He also the Son of God? Discover the truth for yourself. Don’t miss “Savior of the Nations, Come,” being told now, each Sunday, from a pulpit near you. (more…)

Text: Matthew 1:23
Date: Advent IV + 12/23/07
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

My only brother was born (nearly ten years before me!) on December 25. As Christmas and Birthdays are both occasions for gift giving I always wondered if as a child he ever felt short-changed because of that. Or was it I that felt a little jealous because he got the extra attention at Christmas? Honestly, I don’t remember feeling jealous. (He happened to call me this past week and so, all these years later, I asked him about that. He said, the interesting thing was that everyone was concerned that everyone else would combine Christmas and his birthday, so everyone tended to provide double gifts. It was quite a “racket”!)

I mention this to draw your attention to a similar double-celebration for your congregation, The Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word. In Europe it is a long tradition to celebrate not only a person’s birthday but also his or her name day. The reformer Martin Luther was named Martin because he was baptized on St. Martin of Tours day, November 11. So, St. John’s Lutheran Church would celebrate their name day on December 27 for St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, Trinity Lutheran churches on the variable dates of The Holy Trinity, St. Matthew’s on September 21 and so on. So it would seem most appropriate for the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word to celebrate as your name day the festival of the Incarnation or Christmas! And what does the Incarnation say about a congregation called by that name? (more…)

Text: Matthew 3:1-12
Date: Advent II + 12/09/07
Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Any preacher of the Gospel (if he is really preaching the Gospel) will inevitably get himself into trouble. That is, he gets himself in trouble primarily when and because the gospel challenges peoples’ presumptions and expectations. People have all sorts of presumptions and expectations, especially at this time of year, concerning what Christmas is all about. What is most challenging for the preacher is that without an awareness of sin, our innate separation and alienation from God, there can be no Gospel, which is always and only the Good News of reconciliation with God, salvation from sin, death and the devil through the forgiveness of sin. You know the scripture that says, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12). The two edges of that sword are called Law and Gospel. The Law hurts. The Gospel heals. The Law of God comes to reveal our waywardness and sin, the cause of all separation and death, to show us our helplessness and need for a Savior. The Law says “you have sinned and your sin separates you from God; your sin is killing you; and worse than that, you are helpless to fix that, to save yourself.” Only then does the Gospel make any sense as it proclaims and gives deliverance and salvation through the forgiveness of sin all for the sake and by the power of Jesus Christ crucified and risen again.

The season of Advent should be such a challenge to our presumptions and expectations. In its hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and decorations and traffic and mood music in December every year in our country, the world at least still acknowledges that there is some deeper, inherent religious significance to Christmas, witnessed by the broadcasting on Christmas Eve of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols over the radio from Cambridge, England now for 78 years, and Roman Catholic masses from Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago and the Vatican in Rome; not to mention that Christmas is one of the only two times each year many people darken church doors. Many Christians like to try to remind people, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” but even that may not grab anyone’s attention. (more…)

Text: Matthew 1:18-21
Date: Vigil of Christmas / Advent 4 + 12/24/06

      I don’t know which is the greatest mystery—the cosmic transaction of holiness for sin and sin for holiness that took place in those dark hours on the cross of Calvary on Good Friday, or that God should take on our human flesh in the first place in dulci jubilo, “in the quiet joy” and incarnation of the Son of God as the Son of Mary. Indeed, you cannot have one without the other. For it was necessary that God become a Man in order to provide the one, perfect sacrifice beyond our ability, to atone for the sins of the whole world, for the life and salvation of the whole world. But to speak of our Lord’s earthly ministry as “necessary,” and to explain his sinless life, his atoning death, his resurrection triumph over the grave and ascending to the right hand of the Father—to “explain” the Gospel is not necessarily to believe it, and much less to adore it. As the hymn says it, our noblest work is to adore! [LSB 811:2] (more…)

 

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Text: Matthew 11:2-10

Date: Advent 3 + 12/11/05

      A news reporter is expected simply to report the news, to document the facts in an objective way. When a news reporter becomes part of the story, however, or becomes the story him or herself, the original story gets skewed or lost and news turns into editorial, opinion about the news rather than just the news itself. The news was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The news anchor Walter Cronkite cried on camera. The news was the resignation of President Nixon. But suddenly everyone knew the names of the reporters Woodward and Bernstein.

      The Good News (the Gospel)—what I’m supposed to be telling you here—is supposed to be about Jesus Christ. But today the reporter, the one sent to prepare the way, John the Baptist, becomes the news, the focus of attention. Jesus asks the crowds, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see” when you went out to see John? He gives them two wrong answers—a reed shaken by the wind or a man dressed in soft clothing. And then he gives them the right answer: a prophet! (more…)

 

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Text: Luke 21:25-33

Date: Advent 2 + 12/10/06

      Today Jesus tells us about signs appearing in the sun and moon and stars that forecast his second advent or coming on the Day of Judgment and deliverance. As the angel said, when Jesus ascended into heaven and a cloud hid him from his disciples’ sight, so he will come again as you have seen him go. Today Jesus says he will come “in a cloud with power and great glory.” In this last public discourse before his Passion, Jesus gives his disciples some final words to help us prepare “to stand in the presence of the Son of Man” on the Last Day. In fact, this is the goal of Luke’s entire gospel. The words of Jesus, which he says will not pass away, accomplish what Luke promised Theophilus in the beginning, “that you come to recognize completely the reliability concerning the words by which you have been catechized.” (more…)