Author: Al

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Our Light, Our Shield, Our Peace

Text: Matthew 10:5a, 21-33
Date: Proper 7A – Pentecost II + 6/22/14

The season of the Time of the Church, these green Sundays after Pentecost, picks us up today with proper 7 and then throws us right into the struggle of living the faith in the Church Militant. The title “Church Militant” refers to what we’re going through right now, living by faith and not by sight, living, as Luther put it in his famous hymn, “though devils all the world should fill.” We are encouraged in our struggle, however, by our unity with the Church Triumphant, those saints who have gone before us, we therefore being “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” as the letter to the Hebrews says it, cheering us on as it were to “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:1-2). In the Church Militant we live by faith on the promises of God still in the midst of a world not only separated from God by sin but actively at enmity with and antagonistic toward God their enemy and aimed at those who claim to believe and represent God, aimed at us. As St. Paul says today, the world and those who belong to it let sin “reign” in their mortal bodies, to make them obey their passions (Rom 6:12). The world of unbelief does not understand that “the wages of sin is death,” and does not believe or know that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). The world doesn’t think of sin but that death is just a normal part of life and that “eternal life” or salvation is had not as a free gift but as something you must earn by your good works. Continue reading “Our Light, Our Shield, Our Peace”

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An Incomplete Sentence

Text: Matthew 28:19
Date: The Holy Trinity + 6/15/14

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. What? What is in the name of the Trinity? Who? Who is in the name? What’s missing in that oft repeated sentence is a subject and a verb. Therefore it is an incomplete sentence. Many a pastor has felt it necessary to “remedy” this by saying something to the effect, “We make our beginning in the name….” Well, in a certain way they’re right. Left unsaid, however, is our beginning of what? So the idea still remains incomplete. Continue reading “An Incomplete Sentence”

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Rivers of Living Water

Text: John 7:37-39
Date: The Day of Pentecost + 6/7/14

This is the day we celebrate the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples on the Day of Pentecost. To be sure the Holy Spirit had already worked repentance and faith in their hearts. They had come to Jesus; or rather Jesus had come to them and called them to follow Him and believe in Him. They had already experienced the working of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, minds and lives. But now, on the Day of Pentecost, they were to receive the Spirit for a larger purpose, the purpose of being enabled to witness, to testify, to evangelize, to preach and to teach others of Jesus Christ. How many others? As Jesus said at His Ascension, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Like tsunami waves in the ocean that witness, that Gospel has come to our shores, our families and our hearts. In other words this event extends to this very day. In this sense we could say, today we celebrate the birthday of The Holy Church Throughout the World. Continue reading “Rivers of Living Water”

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All With One Accord

Text: Acts 1:12-14
Date: Easter VII + 6/1/14

This is that “strange” Sunday between our Lord’s Ascension into heaven and His sending of the Holy Spirit ten days later on the Day of Pentecost. We return to the upper room with the disciples, the same room in which Jesus washed their feet, predicted the betrayal of Judas, and instituted the sacrament of His body and blood ending with His “High Priestly Prayer” which we heard as today’s Gospel reading. The common theme of today’s readings is the Lord’s prayer for His disciples, “that they may be one” (John 17:11) and St. Luke’s observation in our first reading that “all these (were of) one accord,” “devoting themselves to prayer.” Continue reading “All With One Accord”

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The Foe Shall Not Divide Us

Text: John 14:15-21
Date: Easter VI + 5/25/14

In a few moments we will sing the Hymn of the Day, Martin Luther’s “Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice.” In the seventh stanza Luther puts these words into Christ’s mouth speaking to us: “Stay close to Me, I am your rock and castle. …For I am yours, and you are Mine, And where I am you may remain; The foe shall not divide us” (LSB 556:7). These words are similar to what Jesus said to His disciples on the day before His sacrificial death, which we have been hearing in this Easter season from John chapter 14. They are words of promise, His promise, as He says today, not to “leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Last week we admitted that we share the anxieties of those first disciples wondering where Jesus was going and where He is now that He can help us. Today we recall His words that night when He promised to send, as He said, “another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” This coming Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter, we celebrate our Lord’s Ascension into heaven and then, ten days later, the sending of His promised Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Let us consider this Helper for our lives of faith. Continue reading “The Foe Shall Not Divide Us”

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By His Death we Live

Text: John 14:1-14
Date: Easter V + 5/18/14

I suspect that those first Easter celebrants were still hiding behind those locked doors for fear of the Jews during these forty days, these strange days, even though they had seen the risen Lord Jesus alive again. For as joyful and wonderful as are these Easter days, there were still a lot of questions. Maybe more! Today we, with those first disciples, recall and ponder the words we heard Jesus say on the night when He was betrayed: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Of course their hearts would be greatly troubled the very next day. And our hearts are often troubled, too. Continue reading “By His Death we Live”

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Shepherd and Overseer

Text: Psalm 23

Outline: Alton F. Wedel[1]
Date: Easter IV + 5/11/14

“One of Holy Scripture’s most appealing portraits of the Savior is the theme that underscores His tender mercies: ‘The Lord is my Shepherd.’” Interestingly this Psalm tends to be heard mostly at Christian funerals. Yet “the valley of the shadow of death” is where threats to our life and faith assail us in this life before the grave. It is believed that David of old composed this psalm during the time of the rebellion under his third son, Absalom who intended to take the inheritance of kingship by force. Continue reading “Shepherd and Overseer”

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Bible Study Awakening

Text: Luke 24:13-35
Date: Easter III + 5/4/14

Last Sunday we heard St. John conclude his Gospel account beginning with the words, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book.” Today St. Luke tells us of one. One of the “other signs” was this appearance to the two disciples on their journey to Emmaus. What is most interesting and important to this resurrection appearance is the identity of these two disciples. For neither are one of the apostles as Luke tells us the name of one of them, Cleopas, and also tells us that these two “returned to the eleven.” Continue reading “Bible Study Awakening”

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Objections Overruled

Text: John 20:19-31
Date: Easter II + 4/27/14

He never did it. Though Thomas insisted on examining the evidence, seeing in His hands the mark of the nails and placing his finger into them, and placing his hand into the wound in Jesus’ side, when Jesus appeared he never did it, he never followed through. Jesus even invited him to do it. But that invitation sounded almost more like deserved mockery when the risen Lord suddenly was standing right in the middle of them all in that upper room. With a word the objections Thomas raised were overruled and he believed. Continue reading “Objections Overruled”

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Jesus Christ, NIKA

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:53-57
Date: Easter + 4/20/14

In Greek Orthodox iconography or church art there is the most interesting symbol. Surrounding a cross are Greek capital letters which stand for the phrase, “Jesus Christ” “NIKA” or Victor. If you search on the internet for the word NIKA you either get a listing of women models with that name or the famous athletic shoe company. In Greek, however, “NIKA” is translated “victory,” “victor,” “conqueror” or “to overcome.” On Easter we sing and proclaim the victory of Jesus Christ and of a creation redeemed and reclaimed as belonging once again to God its Creator. “This is the feast of victory for our God, Alleluia!” Continue reading “Jesus Christ, NIKA”