Author: Al

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Faith and Love

Text: John 10:11-18
Date: Easter IV + 4/26/15

The Word of God before us on this Good Shepherd Sunday teaches us of two things, faith and love. It teaches that it is and can be only by faith in the One who lays down His life for us that we can have the forgiveness of our sins and a new, eternal life. At the same time it teaches us love as St. John so clearly summarizes it today, saying, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers…. This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another” (1 John 3:16, 23). Believe and love. Continue reading “Faith and Love”

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Opened Minds

Text: Luke 24:36-49
Date: Easter III + 4/19/14

To be “open minded” people usually mean that a person is willing to consider all sides of an issue. A person, on the other hand, whose mind is made up and will not give another view even a fair hearing is said to be closed minded. There is one other category, of course. For it can be said or suspected of some that they are so open minded that their brains have fallen out. Continue reading “Opened Minds”

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All Together Now

Text: 1 John 1:7
Date: Easter II + 4/12/15

What’s the first word that comes to your mind when I say “sin”? “Transgression”? “Wrong”? “Bad”? “Debt”? I mean what is the word that comes to mind when I ask you what is the fundamental effect of sin? The first word that should come to mind when we talk about sin is “separation.” This is what it meant when, for instance, after their transgression of God’s Law, Adam and Eve discovered that they were naked. That is, because of sin they were now separated from God, and able to calculate everything now from the perspective of what is to my personal benefit or detriment. Not only were we separated from God but also from each other, the creation and even our own selves. Continue reading “All Together Now”

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The End?

Text: Mark 16:1-8
Date: Easter + 4/4/15

All this year we have been sitting at the feet of Saint Mark the Evangelist. The main thing we have noticed is how he seems to be in such a hurry, he doesn’t want to fool around but to get to, as he says in the beginning, “the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” Therefore the first thing we discover is that Mark doesn’t have a Christmas story but begins with the grown up Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist and then thrust into the wilderness, as of first importance, to be tempted by the devil. It’s not too long until we discover opposition forming to Jesus and then He is on the road to His goal. The gospel, Mark has been hinting, is all about the death and resurrection of Christ. Well, here we are! The End. Or is it? Continue reading “The End?”

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My Eternal King

 

Text: Psalm 22:1
Date: Good Friday + 4/3/15

Last night the preparation of our Lord’s offering of Himself as the sacrificial victim for the salvation of the whole world was dramatized by the stripping of the altar. Tonight only the crucifix draped in black remains. It will also be stripped before we run away into the night. As the altar was stripped we heard the words of the psalm of David, Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In these words David prophesied the heart of the gospel of salvation, namely, the endurance by our Savior of the complete abandonment of God for us, the ultimate punishment of sin the punishment we deserve. Continue reading “My Eternal King”

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Not the Eating and the Drinking

Text: Mark 14:12-36
Date: Maundy Thursday + 4/2/15

We have studied the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper comparing the four accounts of the institution in Matthew, Mark, Luke and 1 Corinthians. We noticed that each account varies in some details but that they all record the Verba, Jesus’ words of consecration, “This is my body,” “This is my blood.” These words are the divine words which effect His bodily presence in every celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Continue reading “Not the Eating and the Drinking”

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The Servant's Way

Text: Mark 10:35-45
Date: Lent V + 3/22/15

It always strikes me as a little odd, strangely out of place and out of step when, as we come nearer in preparation for the Great and Holy Week of our Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, we hear this Gospel reading, this incident of James and John suddenly getting the big head and talking about places of power and prestige in Jesus’ coming kingdom. But then how could they know, really know what really lay ahead of them in Jerusalem in a few days? Continue reading “The Servant's Way”

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Where Love and Sorrow Meet

Text: John 3:14-21
Date: Lent IV + 3/15/15

It is night time, but that in two different respects. Today our Lenten journey to the cross leads us closer to dark Gethsemane, the judgment hall, the mournful mountain of Calvary. The darkness looms as we draw nearer to the sacrifice. But there is another sort of darkness; that of a fallen, sinful soul who cannot see, cannot perceive the love of God in it all. Through the darkness, however, a light shines and we will discover the light of love, joy, peace and hope. Continue reading “Where Love and Sorrow Meet”

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The Temple of God

Text: John 2:13-22
Date: Lent III + 3/8/15

It is partly because of the shortness of Mark’s Gospel that those who designed our three-year lectionary decided to share some time especially in Lent and Easter with the apostle John. Though the lectionary, the particular choice of scripture readings, is not divinely inspired nor inerrant like the Bible, it for the most part has been assembled with careful thought. Continue reading “The Temple of God”