Month: June 2013

Text: Luke 9:51-62
Date: Pentecost VI (Proper 8) + 6/30/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. He comes and “sets His face to go to Jerusalem,” there to fulfill His destiny and ours by offering Himself as the one sacrifice for the sin of the world, so that by faith in Him all who believe may be released from the curse and death of sin and be given eternal life. The King came in the Person of Jesus, walking the dusty pathways of Galilee, laying aside His equality with God taking on the form of a servant. Now the crucified, risen, ascended King comes to individuals today through His body, the Church, that is, through the gospel preached in His name. He comes through word preached, read and taught. He comes through water with that word. He comes through the daily assurance of sins forgiven. He even comes giving us His true Body and Blood to eat and to drink sacramentally. He has come to you. And when He comes He bids the same of everyone, saying, “Follow Me.” Continue reading “Half-Hearted Faith?”

Text: Luke 8:26-39
Date: Pentecost V (Proper 7) + 6/23/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, for He is the one sent from God to bring salvation to all people, He is the Son of God the Most High. Continue reading “Everything's Better with Bacon”

Text: Luke 7:36—8:3
Date: Pentecost IV (Proper 6) + 6/16/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, for He comes bearing gifts and especially the gift of the forgiveness of sins. You can tell if someone has received that gift of forgiveness (or at least you should be able to). Once the great King David proved he wasn’t so great. The prophet Nathan delivered the smack down of the Law uncovering David’s great sin, saying, “You are the man!” David repented and received forgiveness. And even with this huge blot on his record, God does not keep a record and David proceeded to be “the Great King” by God’s grace. As Psalm 130 says, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities” or keep a record of sins, “O Lord, who could stand?” The answer is no one. “But with you there is forgiveness” (Ps 130:3-4). That forgiveness comes only at the cost of the death of Jesus Christ and by faith in Him alone. Continue reading “Thanks be to God”

Text: Luke 7:11-17
Date: Pentecost III (Proper 5) + June 9, 2013

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! In heaven peace, and glory in the highest! He comes to a city called Nain in the midst of His earthly life’s journey to the cross. He comes, as the scripture says, with the Spirit of the Lord upon Him to proclaim good news, liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18). The increasing crowds who followed Him have seen His compassion in releasing people from demon possession (4:33-37), sickness (7:1-10), sin (5:17-26), and now even from death. The people were getting the clear idea that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophetic hope and that with Him the messianic age has dawned. Continue reading “The Dead are Raised”

Text: Luke 7:1-10
Date: Pentecost II (Proper 4) + 6/2/13

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” But it is only faith that thinks so, that believes so, that the King’s coming is a blessing. Yet that blessed faith shows up in surprising places and persons. That’s because, as we confess in the Augsburg Confession: Continue reading “Worthy to Receive”