Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29 – setting by Allen D. Lunneberg
Text: Genesis 1:1-5
Date: The Baptism of Our Lord + Epiphany I + 1/8/12
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters” (Ps 29:3). Another psalm says, “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created” (Ps 104:30). Today we are called to attend to the voice, the waters, the Spirit, and creation. Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Numbers 6:22-27
Date: Circumcision and Name of Jesus + First Sunday after Christmas + New Year’s Day + 1/1/12
We tend to hear this shortest Gospel reading of the year as a mere report of events, not unlike a short announcement in the newspaper, “just the facts:” “at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Period. That’s it and that takes care of that.
In a similar way every Sunday are we tempted to just let the final words of the Aaronic benediction slip by us like so many required words of legal disclosure at the end of a commercial. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” Well, that’s nice. Thank you. And that takes care of that.
Today our infant Savior is given a name, and we are given a name. But what takes care of what? Why all the hubbub over names? Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Isaiah 52:7-10
Date: Christmas Day + 12/25/11
On Christmas Day we celebrate and proclaim the doctrine, the teaching, indeed the mystery that, in Jesus of Nazareth, God became man, took on our human flesh and blood, in order to redeem, to save us from sin, death and hell.
Isaiah had foretold it, even as he foretold so much about the coming Messiah. Among the prophet’s prophecies, in the fifty-second chapter he speaks of human feet and arms. Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Isaiah 7:10-14
Date: Christmas Eve + 11/24/11
How many tyrants in their conquests, how many nations, how many church denominations, or how many football teams or quarterbacks have been convinced that God is on their side? At least the proper cheer would be “Deo Volente,” “God willing,” as St. James advises, “you do not know what tomorrow will bring,” so “you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:14-15). So I suppose to some it would seem rather presumptuous that our Savior and God Jesus Christ would be called “Immanuel,” “God is with us.” But that is not a name we came up with on our own, the product of only of our own loyalty or enthusiasm. It is the amazing, majestic name of the Savior given by God Himself through the prophet Isaiah. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” literally, “with us God,” God is with us. This is the significance of Christmas. Read the rest of this entry »
Text: 2 Samuel 7:1-16
Date: Advent IV + 12/18/11
When St. Luke reports of the visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary he says that Mary was “betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph,” and adds the important detail, “of the house of David.” Furthermore, the angel’s announcement includes the prediction that Jesus “will reign over the house of Jacob forever.”
Today’s sermon title points to the double use of the word “house” in our Old Testament reading telling of the great King David “dwelling in a house of cedar,” but the ark of God dwelling in (or should I use today’s protest language and say “occupying”?) a tent on the one hand, and the dynasty, lineage or family tree of David on the other. We are taught to make the distinction in the phrase (at least as old as Benjamin Franklin), “a house is not a home.” Franklin said a house becomes a home when “it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.” We generally make the distinction between house and home more simply between a structure and the family living in it.
But you will notice the sermon title, “H O U S E,” is printed in graphic imitation of the title of the FOX television network’s award winning medical drama series starring James Hugh Calum Laurie OBE (Order of the British Empire) or simply Hugh Laurie. And chances are that you’ve probably seen an episode as the 2012 Guinness book of World Records has designated “H O U S E” as “the world’s most popular current television program, watched by a whopping 81.8 million people in 66 countries.” But did you know that the name of the lead character, Dr. Gregory House, and therefore the name of the program, is itself a double entendre, “a subtle homage” of the writers to the fictional British detective Sherlock Holmes. Get it? “Holmes,” “House”! And this even extends to their “sidekicks.” As there was Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, so in the television series it is Dr. Gregory House and Dr. James Wilson. So the phrase becomes, “a HOUSE is not a HOLMES.” Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Date: Advent III + 12/11/11
Last Sunday we heard the prophet Isaiah foretell the coming of John the Baptist. In today’s selection he speaks no more of him. Interestingly, even though the reading from John’s Gospel today reports about the Baptist, the Baptizer himself insists that he doesn’t talk about himself but came only as a witness to “the light,” “the Christ,” the “One standing among you who you do not know,” “the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” So this Sunday Isaiah also speaks only of the coming Messiah and the joyful kingdom He brings. Read the rest of this entry »
