Month: April 2011

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The End of the Beginning

Text: Matthew 28:1-10
Date: Easter Day + 4/24/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

As preparation for the season of Lent, on the festival of the Transfiguration of our Lord, the sermon title catapulted us, ready or not, into Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season with the title, “The Beginning of the End.” For it was then that we were told of our Lord’s setting His face toward Jerusalem, that he began to teach His disciples what was coming, namely, his suffering, death and resurrection. It seems the closer we got to Holy Week the more the disciples remembered the suffering and death part. But did they remember, yes, did they hear or understand much less believe Jesus’ talk about resurrection, rising on the third day? Well, so for us. We can identify with suffering and even death since we have experienced the same to some degree or another. But resurrection? What are we talking about? What does it mean for the apostle Paul to say to us today that we are “raised with Christ” (Col 3:1)? Well, on behalf of the Holy Church throughout the world and in the name of God, welcome to The End of the Beginning, welcome to the “confirmation” of your faith, welcome to Easter! Our Lord’s successful earthly ministry is the beginning of saving faith in each and every heart that hears the Gospel. But it’s only the beginning. Continue reading “The End of the Beginning”

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Who Dieth Thus Dies Well

Text: St. John Passion; LSB 450:7
Date: Good Friday + 4/22/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Once again to presume to say something more important, more powerful, more persuasive than God’s own inspired scriptural Word is unbelief. Throughout my years I have, therefore, simply not preached, not included a sermon on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. Was such a practice a lazy cheapening and waste of parishioners’ patience and time, or did it demonstrate a bold faith in the Word of God?

To quote our hymn, “What language shall I borrow”? For it seems even human language fails to understand, to describe, to believe, to give thanks for our Lord’s sacrificial offering—the grief and shame, the scorn, the thorns, despised and gory; pale, with sore abuse and scorn, grim death.

Yet this One, this Lamb of God, the Son of God carries our sin, my sin and pays the ultimate, the atoning price for my forgiveness. Remember this. Remember this always and especially when it is your turn…your turn to die. He is your consolation and shield. His passion gives redemption when your last hour draws nigh. In such a vision of His cross and faith it can be said, “Who dieth thus dies well.”

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Holy (Maundy) Thursday

Text: Matthew 26:16-29
Date: Maundy Thursday + 4/21/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In the “Confessional Address” almost everything that needs to be said was said. For it spoke about our acknowledgment and confession of our sins. It then drew us to the Sacrament of the Altar as the focus of the forgiveness of our sins. That is because, as we heard in the reading from Hebrews, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb 9:22). In His words of institution Jesus said nothing about the significance of giving His body for us Christians to eat. But of His blood he said it is “my blood of the covenant” and was poured out “for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:26, 28). Therefore it is especially here where we receive His body and blood according to His covenant and promise that our conscience is calmed, our sins stand forgiven, and we are filled with new, eternal life. We truly receive it and are truly comforted not in so far as we believe this but because Jesus said it. Continue reading “Holy (Maundy) Thursday”

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"…and setting a guard."

Text: St. Matthew Passion
Date: Passion/Palm Sunday + 4/17/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

The enemies of Jesus remembered talk about Jesus’ prediction of being raised from the dead after three days. So they sought to get final control of the situation by setting a guard before the tomb to make sure His disciples didn’t come to steal away His body and then claim a resurrection. But who is in control, anyway? Continue reading “"…and setting a guard."”

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"…and setting a guard."

Text: St. Matthew Passion
Date: Passion/Palm Sunday + 4/17/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

The enemies of Jesus remembered talk about Jesus’ prediction of being raised from the dead after three days. So they sought to get final control of the situation by setting a guard before the tomb to make sure His disciples didn’t come to steal away His body and then claim a resurrection. But who is in control, anyway? Continue reading “"…and setting a guard."”

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The Disciple's Dying and Rising

Text: John 11
Date: Lent V + 4/17/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

We have been following the pathway of Lent, the spiritual walk that leads to the full Easter faith, joy and hope of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, a Christian. That path always begins by the Word of God entering your hearing, getting the attention of your heart, and working that first work of awareness of your need, awareness of sin and the desire for forgiveness and life. It is the divine work of repentance—not only the awareness but also sorrow over sin, and then the gift of faith that looks to God for the mercy and grace of forgiveness. We have seen that work of the Holy Spirit in the examples of Nicodemus the Pharisee (John 3), a Samaritan woman at a well (John 4) and a man blind from birth (John 9). In each of them we have seen ourselves: that is, our innate inability to understand spiritual things, the need for a new birth, for living water, for new eyes to see the grace and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. Continue reading “The Disciple's Dying and Rising”

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The Disciple's Light

Text: John 9
Date: Lent IV + 4/3/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

So far each of our Lenten visitors are different, but they are also the same. Nicodemus is an important man of the Pharisees, but he visits Jesus in the dark of night and does not understand Jesus’ talk about being born again. The Samaritan woman is an outcast even among her own people not to mention the division between Jews and Samaritans, yet she, too, doesn’t understand that Jesus isn’t talking to her about ordinary water. And today a man literally dwells in constant and deep darkness, without physical sight from birth. Though he is given the miracle of physical sight he never sees or knows Jesus until the very end of the drama. Only then, at the Word of Jesus, he is the first of these to give evidence of coming to faith. In all of these we are to learn that regardless of status in this world, we all dwell in spiritual darkness, incapable of understanding until we encounter the light and the enlightenment of God’s Word and Spirit. That encounter happens in mysterious ways, seemingly by happenstance from our perspective, but always at the direction of God. “You must be born again by water and the Spirit.” “I will give you living water.” “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” Water is the means by which God shows that His salvation is for the body as well as the spirit. As water was a prime element at the creation, so was the first of God’s commands, “Let there be light.” Today Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” So the new birth we look for through baptismal water will also be the enlightenment of our minds, hearts and understanding, and Easter will truly be the sunrise of our life. Continue reading “The Disciple's Light”