Allen Lunneberg

Sorry, I forgot my voice recorder today.

Text: 2 Samuel 11:26—12:10, 13-14; Luke 7:36—8:3
Date: Pentecost III, Proper 6 + 6/13/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

There are times when a person may be desperately aware of their sins. The sinful woman in today’s Gospel was one such. You could tell—for she loved Jesus much as she saw in Him the love and forgiveness of God. There is little real love for Jesus, on the other hand, in a person who is not so aware of their great need of Him. How little of the time are we aware of our sins and of the true greatness of the gift of forgiveness, holy absolution. And our little or weak love shows it. Such was the Pharisee named Simon in today’s Gospel. (more…)

 

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Text: Luke 7:11-17
Date: Pentecost II (Proper 5) + 6/6/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

This is the choir and band rehearsal room or music room of Lutheran High School Northwest. That is it’s main function. That’s what it was built for. That is what it is when students arrive with their instruments or sit according to their voices as Soprano, Alto, Tenor or Bass. Sometimes this room can be used as a study hall, or for a faculty meeting or devotions, or other functions. On Sunday morning, however, when we gather here “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” that changes everything. Oh, it may still be recognized as a high school music rehearsal room, even though we do our best to make it a sacred space with an altar and lectern, candles and crucifix. But it isn’t until we announce our gathering to be “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” that it truly is more that a redecorated music room and becomes nothing less than a sanctuary, literally a sacred or holy place, Heaven on Earth. (more…)

 

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Text: John 8:48-59
Date: The Holy Trinity + 5/30/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In our synodical explanation of the Small Catechism, one of the first things, under the First Commandment (Question 19 of the 306), we teach our children, asking, “Who is the only true God?” Answer, “The only true God is the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct persons in one divine being (the Holy Trinity).” This is the characteristic that sets the true God apart from all other false gods. The Athanasian Creed, which we usually recite on Trinity Sunday, claims the necessity of understanding the Triune nature of God by “whoever desires to be saved.” “Whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.” In our worship we gather for the Divine Service “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” we are baptized and absolved, married and buried “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and we are taught to stand especially for a doxological stanza of a hymn in praise of the Holy Trinity. (more…)

 

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Text: John 14:26-27 (Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21)
Date: Day of Pentecost + 5/23/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI
Disclaimer: Before writing this sermon I did not know that the magazine by Glenn Beck is titled “Fusion.”

According to one popular resource, what do you think is the language spoken by most people in the world today? English? Well, that’s number 3 on the list with about 350 million people. Then your second guess may well be Spanish. However that is number 2 on the list with about 358 million speakers, only 8 million more than English. Number one on the list of the languages spoken by most people in the world today is—are you ready?—Mandarin Chinese with about 800 million speakers. (How many guessed at least close?) Then follow on the list in order Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese. German is, then, tenth on the list with 100 million speakers (Swedish is 77^th, 9 million, Norwegian, 116^th, 5 million). Last on the “modern” list is Ter Sami of the Uralic family found in a corner of Russia (Murmansk Oblast) spoken, it is said, by only two people! Right. The total number of living languages in the world today is numbered at 6,909. On the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem that 50^th day after our Lord’s resurrection, ten days after His ascension, St. Luke lists only 15 languages. But for simple Galileans to suddenly be able to speak in their languages was a great miracle. Today, of course, with resources like Rosetta Stone software, you can choose up to 31 different languages you can learn, they say, “the same way you learned your first language,” a little less, I guess, of a miracle! Lutheran Bible Translators say the Bible has been translated into 2400 of the 6900 languages of the modern world, or almost only 35%. The rest of the world has no written copy of the Bible in their own language. (more…)

 

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Text: Mark 13:24-27
Date: Last Sunday of the Church Year + 11/22/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

My Lord, what a morning—the morning of our Lord’s promised and blessed return. Whoever thought that such an otherwise fearful sign in the heavens—“when the stars begin to fall”—would signal not terror but rather the greatest, most comforting event in our lives and in the history of the world? That which has been longed for since the first disciples stood with their necks craned to the sky at their beloved Lord’s ascension, indeed, since Abraham once gazed at the unnumbered stars in the firmament, since Adam and Eve heard that their offspring would be the morning star of the salvation of the universe, since in our own baptism we were called God’s stars, is now fulfilled in His promised return, “when the stars begin to fall.” He comes “to take us to be where He is,” when the stars begin to fall; to take us to Himself, to raise us from our graves, to change us to be like His glorious body, to give us those new white robes and usher us into the marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end, “when the stars begin to fall.” “They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light” (Rev. 22:5), “when the stars begin to fall.” Indeed, they…we…“those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the firmament of the heaven and as the stars for ever and ever,” “when the stars begin to fall.” My Lord, what a morning…when the stars begin to fall. (more…)

 

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Text: Mark 13:1-13
Date: Pentecost XXIV (Proper 28) + 11/15/09 (11/12/00)
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

As we approach the end of the liturgical year the lectionary turns to the theme of the Last Things, the Last Day, the “parousia” or second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the question is, Are you prepared? Are you prepared for the Lord’s return? for your last day? for the last judgment and for your destiny of either eternal life through the forgiveness of your sins or for eternal suffering and death through unbelief? As when a person prepares for a long trip or an extended vacation by packing suit cases and travel bags, or as a person prepares for Christmas by decorating a tree, putting colorful light displays outside like a number of my neighbors were doing yesterday, then ordering, purchasing and wrapping gifts, just what does a person prepared for the Last Day look like? What’s involved with that preparation? (more…)