Month: May 2010

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The Only True God

Text: John 8:48-59
Date: The Holy Trinity + 5/30/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In our synodical explanation of the Small Catechism, one of the first things, under the First Commandment (Question 19 of the 306), we teach our children, asking, “Who is the only true God?” Answer, “The only true God is the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct persons in one divine being (the Holy Trinity).” This is the characteristic that sets the true God apart from all other false gods. The Athanasian Creed, which we usually recite on Trinity Sunday, claims the necessity of understanding the Triune nature of God by “whoever desires to be saved.” “Whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.” In our worship we gather for the Divine Service “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” we are baptized and absolved, married and buried “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and we are taught to stand especially for a doxological stanza of a hymn in praise of the Holy Trinity. Continue reading “The Only True God”

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Confusion to Fusion

Text: John 14:26-27 (Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21)
Date: Day of Pentecost + 5/23/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI
Disclaimer: Before writing this sermon I did not know that the magazine by Glenn Beck is titled “Fusion.”

According to one popular resource, what do you think is the language spoken by most people in the world today? English? Well, that’s number 3 on the list with about 350 million people. Then your second guess may well be Spanish. However that is number 2 on the list with about 358 million speakers, only 8 million more than English. Number one on the list of the languages spoken by most people in the world today is—are you ready?—Mandarin Chinese with about 800 million speakers. (How many guessed at least close?) Then follow on the list in order Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese. German is, then, tenth on the list with 100 million speakers (Swedish is 77th, 9 million, Norwegian, 116th, 5 million). Last on the “modern” list is Ter Sami of the Uralic family found in a corner of Russia (Murmansk Oblast) spoken, it is said, by only two people! Right. The total number of living languages in the world today is numbered at 6,909. On the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem that 50th day after our Lord’s resurrection, ten days after His ascension, St. Luke lists only 15 languages. But for simple Galileans to suddenly be able to speak in their languages was a great miracle. Today, of course, with resources like Rosetta Stone software, you can choose up to 31 different languages you can learn, they say, “the same way you learned your first language,” a little less, I guess, of a miracle! Lutheran Bible Translators say the Bible has been translated into 2400 of the 6900 languages of the modern world, or almost only 35%. The rest of the world has no written copy of the Bible in their own language. Continue reading “Confusion to Fusion”

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"…and for the unity of all let us pray to the Lord."

Text: John 17:20-26
Date: Easter VII + 5/16/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

At the end of His speaking in the Upper Room on that Thursday night of Holy Week, the night in which He was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ prayed. St. John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, accurately recorded that prayer, for Jesus certainly meant it to be overheard by His disciples. He prayed for His own successful finish of His redeeming work, namely His vicarious, atoning suffering and death on the cross for the sin of all mankind. Then He prayed for His disciples that were with Him that they would be kept in faith and unity. Finally, we heard today the last part of the prayer where He prays also for us, for “those who will believe in me through their word,” that is, the Apostles’ witness and teaching. The overall theme of His prayer is the unity of His disciples as defined by nothing less than the very unity and oneness of God. Far from being just a nice extra to be added after the really important stuff of the faith, this unity itself is the evidence that the Gospel is secured in the hearts of the faithful. Continue reading “"…and for the unity of all let us pray to the Lord."”

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"…and for the unity of all let us pray to the Lord."

Text: John 17:20-26
Date: Easter VII + 5/16/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

At the end of His speaking in the Upper Room on that Thursday night of Holy Week, the night in which He was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ prayed. St. John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, accurately recorded that prayer, for Jesus certainly meant it to be overheard by His disciples. He prayed for His own successful finish of His redeeming work, namely His vicarious, atoning suffering and death on the cross for the sin of all mankind. Then He prayed for His disciples that were with Him that they would be kept in faith and unity. Finally, we heard today the last part of the prayer where He prays also for us, for “those who will believe in me through their word,” that is, the Apostles’ witness and teaching. The overall theme of His prayer is the unity of His disciples as defined by nothing less than the very unity and oneness of God. Far from being just a nice extra to be added after the really important stuff of the faith, this unity itself is the evidence that the Gospel is secured in the hearts of the faithful. Continue reading “"…and for the unity of all let us pray to the Lord."”

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Plain Speaking

Text: John 16:23-33
Date: Easter VI + 5/9/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Thanks to Jesus’ own promise the Holy Spirit accurately brought to St. John’s remembrance as he penned his Gospel all that Jesus had said on that night in which He was betrayed. Today we hear the concluding words from the upper room as Jesus summarizes His mission and reassures His disciples of God’s continuing love. “No longer will I speak to you in figures of speech but will speak plainly” He says even as they still have a lot to learn and to understand. As with us and every person, the clear, plain speaking of the Gospel is the avenue or the means through which the Holy Spirit brings about conversion, repentance and faith in a person making him or her a disciple of Jesus, a son or daughter of God, a member of the household of God. Continue reading “Plain Speaking”

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True Joy

Text: John 16:12-22
Date: Easter V + 5/2/10
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

The scripture readings for this Fifth Sunday of Easter have us looking both forward and back. The reading from Revelation is obviously a glimpse of what is yet to be, the new heaven and the new earth of eternal life. Indeed, today’s Gospel has Jesus speaking in future terms. But it is important to remember that these words were spoken at the Last Supper of Thursday of Holy Week, before His death and resurrection. He said that there were things that His disciples “could not bear,” that is, understand right then and He promised them the Spirit of truth and that their sorrow would turn to joy in “a little while.” While we can apply these words to our need for understanding and spiritual growth and our experiences of sorrow as we await our Lord’s second, final, triumphant coming on the day of judgment, our first consideration must be to understand what He meant originally on that night. Today with resurrection eyes, knowing that the crucifixion led to the empty tomb of His rising again, we can go back to recall and to understand now what we couldn’t understand before. In doing so we hope to discover and understand the True Joy of being His disciples. Continue reading “True Joy”