Text: Matthew 25:31-46
Date: Last Sunday of the Church Year + Proper 29 + 11/20/11
On the Last Sunday of the Church Year we are interested in “the bottom line,” the answer to the question, “what’s it all about?” It is another way to ask about our destiny, the End Times, the Last Day, the Day of Judgment. Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Date: Pentecost XXII + Proper 28 + 11/13/11
It is the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, the next-to-last Sunday of the Church Year. As you would expect, therefore, the lectionary readings have become particularly urgent concerning “the times and the seasons” and especially the last day of the Lord when He will come, as St. Paul said today, “like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:1-2).
The clouds of judgment gather,
The time is growing late;
Be sober and be watchful,
Our judge is at the gate. (LSB 513) Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Date: All Saints’ Day (Observed) + 11/6/11
All Saints’ Day originally came to be when the calendar began to be too full of names of those Christians who have died and gone before us through death and the grave into the everlasting arms of our Savior. We continue to remember the most famous of our forebears, the prophets and apostles and martyrs and teachers of the Church from Biblical times even to our own more local saints as we observed last Sunday on the 200th birthday of Pastor C. F. W. Walther. Then we remember the even more local saints as we may speak of a sainted pastor or teacher, mother or father, wife or husband, sister or brother, or (God have mercy) son, daughter or grandchild. It is only natural, good and right that we remember those who have gone before us with the sign of faith on the anniversary of their death (their “heavenly birthday”) and more often. Because in the early centuries the numbers increased into multitudes, All Saints’ Day became the day dedicated to the remembrance of, you guessed it, all who have gone before us. In German Lutheran or Evangelical tradition the day has become known as Totenfest, “toten” meaning death. Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Jude 3
Date: Written on Walther’s 200th Birthday, 10/25/11 + Reformation Day (Observed) + 10/30/11
In this 494th celebration of the 16th century Conservative Reformation of the Church by Martin Luther, we do so this year with special attention given to him who is the founding father in the 19th century of our confessional fellowship, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, on the 200th birthday of Pastor Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther. He was not originally designated to be a leader by those who emigrated from Saxony in Germany to this country as was “Bishop” Martin Stephan. But he was blessed by God through his study of Scripture, Luther’s writings and the Lutheran Confessions and his own experience in the Germany in which he grew up, after Stephan’s demise to emerge as the one needed to gather the members of their community around the Word of God to settle the questions concerning their standing before God as faithful members of Christ’s Church on earth. He became pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis, Missouri, first president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and first (and third!) president of (as we were originally called) The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States (Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Synode von Missouri, Ohio und Andern Staaten). Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Matthew 22:34-46
Date: Pentecost XIX + Proper 25 + 10/23/11
The chief priests and elders of the people and the parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees all quizzed Jesus and tried to catch him in His talk. In this last week of His earthly life, after one last attempt to test His orthodoxy, Jesus reached out to his opponents one last time. He gave it One More Try to bring them to repentance and faith; repentance of sin and faith IN HIM. The result of His final effort is stated by Matthew, “No one was able to answer [Jesus] a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” Case closed. From here on Jesus would speak His final words of warning, His grief over the rejection of Jerusalem, His last words of instruction for His disciples, then His betrayal, arrest, denial and trial, and finally His death by crucifixion. All this suggests that there is coming a time for each person when it will be too late; too late for repentance and faith, too late for salvation. So is it important to receive Jesus as Savior now, today, before it is too late. Read the rest of this entry »
Text: Matthew 22:15-22
Date: Pentecost XVIII + Proper 24 + 10/23/11
We are definitely on the threshold of the ending of another liturgical year, the completion of the Church’s telling of the story, the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who He is, what He came to do and how all of that involves you, your life now and your eternal destiny. Big topics! Important stuff! We are coming to the conclusion of reviewing our Lord’s earthly ministry. And we are also coming to the conclusion of whether this saving Word of God has found a dwelling place in your heart and mind and soul by a God-given faith for your salvation. Read the rest of this entry »
