Month: January 2011

[[Kick me! I forgot my voice recorder this morning. Kick me or have mercy.]]

Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Date: Epiphany IV + 1/30/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Since the celebration of Advent/Christmas this year the Epiphany of Our Lord has, thus far, consisted in a sort of introduction to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After His miraculous incarnation and birth of the Virgin Mary and childhood, when He was about thirty years old John the Baptist ushered Him into His office as the Messiah, the Christ by His Baptism in the Jordan River. Hereafter He began His active, earthly ministry in Galilee, preaching, teaching and healing every disease. But only now does St. Matthew get personal with us in his Gospel. Today the call goes out to all who would be Christians, disciples, learners or followers of Jesus Christ. The invitation is in the first words of the Sermon on the Mount, called the Beatitudes; “beatitude” the Latin word for the Greek “macarioi,” in English, “blessed.” The Beatitudes are an invitation to discipleship, the “entrance exam,” if you will, or the doorway through which one must enter to begin the journey as a disciple. For these words have the power in themselves to begin to change you—to change you from a sinner into a saint, from a child of earth to a child of heaven, from an unbeliever to a believer, from one destined to the punishment of hell to a citizen of the blessing of heaven. Whoever enters through this door enters the kingdom of God and becomes “a new creation” as the Apostle Paul put it (2 Cor. 5:17). So are you ready? Are you ready to discover what you must become or have already become by faith in Christ? Walk this way. Continue reading “The New Creation”

Text: Matthew 4:12-25
Date: Epiphany III + 1/23/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

So far our Christmas celebration has burst forth into the floodlight of the Epiphany declaration, in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” (Is. 9:2). That Light is Christ. It is the message of salvation through the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. The message is so bright, warm and winsome that, even though applying first and foremost to God’s ancient people, the Jews, still it immediately drew Gentile wise men from the east. So said Isaiah and Matthew, “Galilee of the Gentiles…on them a light has dawned” (v. 15-16). Continue reading “My Message”

Text: John 1:35-42a
Date: Epiphany II X 1/16/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

The Apostle and Evangelist St. John must have loved recalling and telling of this, his first encounter with and his first steps in following Jesus. For, then everything was so new, so fresh, so exciting. He was a disciple of John the son of Zechariah who, everyone said, was a real, true prophet of God. And people, lots of people, were responding to his preaching: “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” I’m sure young John was among the first to be baptized. I wonder if he then served as an usher of sorts, directing people into and helping them out of the Jordan River. This was really new and not like the, at times, boring round of chants and readings in synagogue and sacrifices in the temple. Continue reading “My Beloved Disciples”

Text: Matthew 3:13-17
Date: Epiphany I + Baptism of Our Lord + 1/9/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Last Sunday, with St. Luke’s account of the twelve-year-old Jesus being (1) lost and found (2) at Passover (3) in the Jerusalem Temple, we spoke, among other things, of God’s Word. We spoke of His prophetic Word in the Old Testament and especially of those prophecies that pointed to their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. In fact we made the observation, saying, that the only way we can really know that this Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, Christ and Savior is not because your parents told you (as they should), or because “the Church” throughout all the ages and the world told you so (as she should), but only and solely because faith sees that everything written about Him in the Old Testament has been perfectly and completely fulfilled in Him and only in Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the virgin Mary, the descendant of Abraham and David. This was the source and authority that directed the wise men when they asked, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” The chief priests and the scribes got out their Bibles and read Micah 5:2 as the prophecy that says the Savior will be born in Bethlehem. They seemed quite sure. Because the prophet said it, they believed it, and it was so. And the wise men went and discovered their goal. Continue reading “My Beloved Son”