http://al.lunneberg.com Sermons and Rumenations Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:14:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 2005-2008 alunneberg@comcast.net (Allen Lunneberg) alunneberg@comcast.net (Allen Lunneberg) 1440 http://al.lunneberg.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://al.lunneberg.com 144 144 Sermons and more from my site. Allen Lunneberg Allen Lunneberg alunneberg@comcast.net no no http://al.lunneberg.com/2008/04/19/god-prepares-a-place/ http://al.lunneberg.com/2008/04/19/god-prepares-a-place/#comments Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:53:24 +0000 alunneberg http://al.lunneberg.com/?p=93 http://al.lunneberg.com/2008/04/19/god-prepares-a-place/feed/ 0 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/29/to-stand-before-the-son-of-man/ http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/29/to-stand-before-the-son-of-man/#comments Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:01:25 +0000 alunneberg http://al.lunneberg.com/?p=15 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/29/to-stand-before-the-son-of-man/feed/ 0 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/26/lord-open-to-us/ http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/26/lord-open-to-us/#comments Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:57:59 +0000 alunneberg http://al.lunneberg.com/?p=12 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/26/lord-open-to-us/feed/ 0 0:11:31 Matthew 25:1-13       “Lord, open to us.” With the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, our Lord prepares his disciples for “the delay”—that seemingly long period of time between his first a[...] Matthew 25:1-13       “Lord, open to us.” With the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, our Lord prepares his disciples for “the delay”—that seemingly long period of time between his first advent, his passion, death, resurrection and ascension, and his promised return as victorious Lord of all. Some 2,000 years later we easily forget the lively expectation of the Lord’s return in which the first disciples lived from day to day. So lively was that expectation that at First Church of Thessalonica, when fellow Christians began to die before the Lord’s return, they were puzzled and troubled and began to grieve like men who have no hope. Some even began to spin their own, homemade theology, beginning to think that Jesus must not have meant that he would really come again “as they had seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11), but meant only some sort of “spiritual,” invisible coming again. Hence the burden of St. Paul’s letter reassuring them of our Lord’s visible return. Like them, and on this day when we remember the faithful departed from our own parish and family, we are to comfort ourselves and encourage one another with the word of the Apostle, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” [1 Thess. 4:14 (ESV)]. They are with the Lord because in faith, in this life they had said, “Lord, open to us,” and he did.        Lord, open to us. This parable warns that there are wise and foolish followers of Christ. Who are the wise? The first persons so called in the New Testament are the wise men from the east who were drawn by the star to visit the newborn King of the Jews in Bethlehem. That star along with the prophesy of Micah were the Word of God that drew them. The oil, the fuel of hope, the lamp giving light to our feet is the Word of God. Later, Jesus said to his disciples, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” [Matthew 7:24 (ESV)]. St. Paul reassured the young pastor Timothy, recalling “how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” [2 Tim. 3:15 (ESV)]. The Word of God is the oil, the fuel of the light that brings the wisdom of faith, which is what makes ever ready for the Lord’s return.        Through the years the lamp of faith in God’s Word at times dimmed, faded and flickered and the Church became drowsy amid the ether of human inventions and traditions that obscured the pure Gospel. 426 years ago, on November 20, the light of the Gospel awakened many with the publication of The Book of Concord, as those confessors were made bold to confess the Truth in the face of all darkness. Since then similar cycles between drowsy devotion and spiritual awakening have come and gone. Once again today it appears, while some have given up on the oil and the lamp of God’s means of grace, many others are rediscovering the energy of confessing the Word of God in its truth and purity.        “Lord, open to us.” We hear these words in the parable only from the mouths of the “foolish” when it was too late. We are bidden, therefore, to say these words now, today, while the supply of the Word is available. “Lord, open to us.” These are the words of sincere and regular confession and absolution. They are the words of the liturgy that teach us how to approach God as our loving Father who has mercy; joining in angelic chorus in praise to God; asking for what we really need as revealed in His Word. He opens the doors of his mercy and grace when we are washed in Holy Baptism, as His Holy Word is[...] Sermons alunneberg@comcast.net no no http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/19/the-last-judgment/ http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/19/the-last-judgment/#comments Sun, 19 Nov 2006 15:04:23 +0000 alunneberg http://al.lunneberg.com/?p=9 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/19/the-last-judgment/feed/ 0 0:10:45 Matthew 25:31-46       Our Lord Jesus Christ, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, was incarnate, took on our human flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also fo[...] Matthew 25:31-46       Our Lord Jesus Christ, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, was incarnate, took on our human flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also for us, suffered our sin and was buried in our death. The third day, however, He rose again because death could not hold him. He ascended into heaven and is sitting to this day, ruling and reining over all things so that death can no longer hold us who have here been buried with him by baptism into death. Finally, then, we believe that He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. Of that day his disciples asked him, in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” Seeing in his mind’s eye all the false prophets and teachers that would come along throughout history presuming to answer that question, our Lord’s very first word of response was, “See that no one leads you astray” [Matthew 24:3-4 (ESV)]. Then answering their question clearly, our Lord pointed to the convulsions of the creation, the warring madness of the nations, the atrocities and love grown cold among people as signs; he emphasized the necessity that the Gospel of the Kingdom be preached to the whole creation, that no one knows the hour or the day, and so commanded his disciples always to be ready in faith for his return, and, in today’s Gospel, described his return in judgment in no uncertain terms.       For all the details of this picture of the Day of Judgment, the most important thing to note is that the judgment has already happened. The King knows who are his sheep and who are the unbelieving goats so as to place them on his right and his left in the beginning, right off the bat. “I know My own; My own know Me. You, not the world, My face shall see” [LSB 645:5]. Therefore the scripture says, “‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” [2 Cor. 6:2 (ESV)]. In other words the judgment happens now depending upon whether you receive Christ or reject him now, today. The only thing different about the Last Day of Judgment is that then there will then be no more second chances.       Therefore this text serves as both a warning to those “who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” [2 Thess. 1:8 (ESV)], but more as a blessed comfort and assurance for those who are in Christ. It is the warning as blessed Paul the Apostle wrote, that “they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day,” and it is the blessed comfort and assurance that, when he comes on that day, he will “be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” [2 Thess. 1:9-10 (ESV)].       The Day of Judgment is a comfort for us, first of all, as it emphasizes the central doctrine of salvation by God’s grace through faith alone. The listing of the works—“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me”—are not mentioned as works that qualify you for salvation, but rather as the evidence of the living faith that saves. The amazing answer of the righteous, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,” etc., witnesses to the fact that Christians, most of the time do their humble good works naturally, hardly even thinking about it. Faith is an active, living thing that changes us, that brings about[...] Sermons alunneberg@comcast.net no no http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/15/the-gospel-call-for-post-moderns/ http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/15/the-gospel-call-for-post-moderns/#comments Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:12:02 +0000 alunneberg http://al.lunneberg.com/?p=7 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/15/the-gospel-call-for-post-moderns/feed/ 0 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/08/until-that-day/ http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/08/until-that-day/#comments Thu, 09 Nov 2006 01:25:28 +0000 alunneberg http://al.lunneberg.com/?p=6 http://al.lunneberg.com/2006/11/08/until-that-day/feed/ 0