Allen Lunneberg

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Text: Matthew 10:34-42
Date: Pentecost II + Proper 8 + 6/26/11

Our Lord Jesus Christ chose twelve men whom He appointed to follow Him, learn from Him, and tell others what they had learned. They were to be the eye- and ear-witnesses of “all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning, from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us” (Acts 1:21-22), witnesses of the resurrection. All of them would be missionaries and preachers. Some would write parts of the inspired New Testament scriptures. However, in addition to them, all believers also serve in a missionary activity of witness, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Such is the burden of Jesus’ great Missionary Discourse of Matthew chapter ten. The first part concerns especially the outreach of the Twelve to the Israelites alone. The second part has in mind the outreach also to the Gentiles, all nations, and as such the task that is before us to this day through the twenty-first century to our Lord’s return on the Last Day. (more…)

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Text: Matthew 28:16-20
Date: The Holy Trinity + Pentecost I + 6/19/11

Back in “the day” when I began my studies at the seminary it was the tradition for each incoming class to adopt a motto or quote from the Bible as their class theme. I don’t remember who made the choice but ours, the class of 1975-1979, was what was called The Great Commission, part of today’s Gospel, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Those words, I suppose, were intended to emphasize our enthusiasm to prepare ourselves for this, what we assumed was THE main task of the ministry and of the Church, to get going and make disciples for Jesus. (more…)

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Text: John 7:37-39
Date: Day of Pentecost + 6/12/11

Of all the other feasts appointed by the Lord in the Old Testament two alone are fulfilled, completed and included in the Christian calendar, that is, they have achieved the goal for which they were created and commanded only with regard to the earthly ministry of the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those two feasts are Passover and Pentecost. The Passover or Paschal feast prepared for, pointed to and was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Day of Pentecost prepared for, pointed to and was fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Christians fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection. The Passover with its sacrifice of a lamb, the sign of blood protecting God’s people from the angel of death and the resulting deliverance from the slavery of Egypt was appointed by God with the goal of proclaiming His deliverance of people from the slavery of sin and death through His own sacrifice of blood in the Person of Jesus. Pentecost, a harvest festival of first fruits, was appointed by God with the goal of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the preaching about Jesus on a day when people from all over the inhabited world were in attendance in Jerusalem. The first fruits festival was a thanksgiving to God as a sort of guarantee that the rest of the crop will come in in its time. As St. Paul proclaimed the risen Christ as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:20), our risen Lord’s resurrection is the guarantee of your resurrection and that of all who believe in Him. (more…)

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Text: Colossians 1:13-20
Date: Last Sunday in the Church Year (Proper 29) + 11/21/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

On this Last Sunday of the Church Year the last word of it all—it may surprise us—is not the picture of pearly gates and roads paved with gold, the gates of heaven lifted up as the saints go marching in behind the King of Glory, but rather the all-too-real picture of our King of Glory as he hangs helpless between two criminals on a cross in a place called The Skull (Luke 23:27-43). Jesus, crucified! The mocking, the shame and yet the gracious words of the true triumph, “Father forgive,” “today you will be with me in Paradise.” (more…)

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Text: Luke 18:9-17
Date: Pentecost XXII + Proper 25 + 10/24/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In his narrative of our Lord’s journey to Jerusalem, and therefore the Christian disciple’s journey of faith with Jesus, once again St. Luke tells us of a parable Jesus told and supplies the point by describing the problem addressed, namely, that of “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” It is interesting that this parable is so important, memorable and pivotal and yet appears only here in Luke’s Gospel alone. For this parable treats most directly the central teaching of the entire Bible and of the Christian faith, namely, the justification (or salvation) of the sinner by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ for the sake of His bloody, holy sacrifice on the cross and mighty resurrection from the dead. After telling the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector Jesus concludes how only one of them went home “justified.” I looked at the rather unique translation of Luke and Acts by Clarence Jordan in his “Cotton Patch Version of Luke and Acts” to see how he translated the word “justified.” He calls the Pharisee the “church member” and the tax collector the “unsaved man.” So Jesus says referring to the tax collector, “I’m telling you, this man went home cleaned up rather than that one.”[1] To be justified means to be “cleaned up;” cleaned up of sin and God’s judgment of death. (more…)

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Text: Luke 18:1-8
Date: Pentecost XXI + Proper 24 + 10/17/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

She wasn’t praying for a husband, nor for a handout of bread, and certainly not for a nice suburban house, a second TV or a Mercedes-Benz. She was praying for justice, a just judgment in the face of everything and everyone that spoke against it. It is a complete misuse of this text to draw the conclusion, as so many have, that we are being told here that if we pray long enough, or hard enough, God will ultimately give us what we ask for, no matter for what it is that we ask. But this parable is not about praying for anything and everything, but only one thing. It is about prayer over the long haul, the prayer for ultimate deliverance from our adversaries, sin, death and the devil. It is about the constant prayer for salvation in view of the fact that we are not there yet. “Thy kingdom come.” (more…)