Month: November 2009

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Blessed is the Coming King

Text: Luke 19:28-40
Date: Advent I + 11/29/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Probably the most important and most unknown and unexpected aspect of the Gospel of salvation is the fact that people think they have to somehow look for God, try to find God, or come to Him. The surprising truth is, however, that God is the One who looks for you, who finds you, who comes to you. People really don’t get that, or agree with that. This is true of the beginning of the life of faith in a person as well as its continued life in authentic worship where the issue is never about us doing something for God, and certainly not about us doing something just to entertain ourselves, but is all about listening to God and receiving God who comes and speaks, who blesses, forgives, feeds and sends us. So also then with the end of faith. At death or on the Last Day, we are not shot out into an out-of-body experience to appear before a mysterious God all the time wondering what the final verdict with be, rather the Lord comes to us individually to receive us to Himself because we belong to Him already and, at the end of days, He comes with glory to raise us from our graves and judge the living and the dead. He already knows His own and His own know Him. There are no surprises with faith other than the sheer beauty and joy of it all. “Advent” means “coming,” God coming to us. Advent: God has come to our world, in our geography and history and time in the Person of His Son, born of the Virgin, crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, risen and ascended into heaven. Since then, Advent: God continues to come to us in His Word and Sacraments by His Spirit. And finally, Advent: God will come again at the Last Day. So we emphasize and describe the Savior’s three-fold coming on this First Sunday in Advent by meditating on His “Triumphant Entrance” into Jerusalem at the beginning of the Great and Holy Week as recorded by St. Luke. For it’s all summarized there: the Lord’s first advent, the incarnate, in-the-flesh Messiah named Jesus; the Lord’s coming to individual hearts by faith in Him; and the majestic accolades due to the King of Glory and of eternity. Continue reading “Blessed is the Coming King”

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When the Stars Begin to Fall

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. Continue reading “When the Stars Begin to Fall”

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English Lesson

I can’t take this anymore. Everyone has “learned” a mispronunciation from our current POTUS. Everyone says, as he says, “re-dis-tri-BEAUT-iv.” Drives me nuts! The proper pronunciation is, “re-dis-TRIB-u-tive”!!!! Say it five times…out loud. Grrrrrrrrrr!

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Prepare for the Last Day

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? Continue reading “Prepare for the Last Day”

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When Religion Has Lost Its Soul

Text: Mark 12:38-44
Date: Pentecost XXIII + 11/8/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, we approach the telling of the end of our Lord’s earthly ministry, and of this world of sin, separation and death, and the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth for which we long in the day of the resurrection of all flesh, the Day of Judgment. The events leading up to Jesus’ central, most important work the Holy Church celebrates in detail during Holy Week and Easter, namely, His one, singular offering of Himself to bear the sins of many, as the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says it. All the Evangelists paint the picture of the drama building between Jesus on the one hand and the official religious establishment on the other. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with the establishment or “organized religion” as some call it, meaning established divisions of various kinds of service in the Church. It’s just when the institution forgets its original character and mission and begins to operate only for the purpose of its own self-preservation that it incurs the judgment of God. This was the situation that prevailed in Jesus’ time. In fact the mystery is how God used the very spiritual deadness of His people and His official religious teachers and representatives to bring about the Gospel of forgiveness and freedom for the whole world through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, on the cross of Calvary. Continue reading “When Religion Has Lost Its Soul”