Month: January 2016

Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Date: Epiphany IV + 1/31/16

Our text from Jeremiah this morning, the Call of Jeremiah, brings two issues to the fore. First, this text helps us to observe Life Sunday which we only mentioned in the prayers in the past two weeks. Then, secondly, and in concert with today’s Gospel let us take note and consider that the Word of God is A Powerful Word. Continue reading “A Powerful Word”

Text: Nehemiah 8
Date: Epiphany III + 1/24/16

Synagogue. The word literally means to bring together or an assembly. So it is used to describe especially a Jewish congregation or house of worship. The synagogue is for the sacrifice of prayer and teaching since the old animal sacrifices may only be offered in the Jerusalem Temple. Continue reading “Synagogue”

Text: Isaiah 62:1-5
Date: Epiphany II + 1/17/16

You all know the recent triumphs of the demonstrably very small homosexual lobby especially pressuring the Supreme Court of The United States of America to presume to change the definition of marriage to the great confusion and consternation of many, especially the faithfully Biblical and orthodox Holy Christian Church. I say they presume to change the definition because it is not within the power of any human government to change a fundamental part of the creation of God. God created marriage. And we discover today that He created it for more than just establishing and promulgating human society. He created it because marriage is of the very nature and essence of God’s relationship with His holy, redeemed people. Remember how Saint Paul, as he was talking about marriage, said, “‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’” And then he continued, saying, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:31-32). That always seems like such a strange comment coming out of left field, so to speak, especially if it is read as one of the lessons at a wedding. In the parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25) Jesus refers to Himself as the bridegroom. The Church is the Bride of Christ. Continue reading “Called By a New Name”

Text: Isaiah 43:1-7
Date: Epiphany I + Baptism of Our Lord  1.10.16

On the First Sunday after the Epiphany we always remember, celebrate and proclaim the baptism of Our Lord by John the Baptist. Having worshipped at the nativity, then the circumcision, then the presentation in the temple, after the family’s escape or flight into Egypt and His surprising appearance as a twelve-year-old child in the temple, today marks the beginning of our Lord’s active earthly ministry. Whereas during Christmas we have witnessed His birth, His being made man as the result of so many Old Testament promises and predictions of God, now, when Jesus was about thirty years old, we begin to tell the Gospel of our salvation and the salvation of the whole world by our Lord’s active righteousness (living faithfully with us under God’s Law) leading up to His passive righteousness (His crowning, atoning, redeeming work on the cross, His innocent suffering and death). Continue reading “Called by My Name”