Author: Al

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After Grief God Gives Relief

Text: Lamentations 3:22-33
Date: Pentecost V (Proper 8) + 7/1/12

What God ordains is always good:
His will is just and holy.
As He directs my life for me,
I follow meek and lowly.
My God indeed
In ev’ry need
Knows well how He will shield me;
To Him, then, I will yield me.

Words of faith sung in the conviction of faith, faith in a gracious God who has become our merciful Father in our baptism of faith in Jesus Christ, who we firmly believe not only provides us with everything we truly need in this earthly life but also has a plan and directs our lives working everything together for our eternal good. In our daily life the Christian usually most willingly says, “To Him, then, I will yield me.” Continue reading “After Grief God Gives Relief”

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A Voice Cries—a Little and a Lot

Text: Isaiah 40:1-5 (Luke 1:57-80)
Date: Nativity of St. John the Baptist + 6/24/12

Since today happens to be a special festival of the church year our lectionary insert turns our attention from the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost to The Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Again the church year attempts to imitate the exact amount of time in the historical record as John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus. So today is exactly six months before Christmas! Of course, as you may have noticed, not exactly! For this is the 24th of June and Christmas is the 25th of December. The best explanation of this I found lies in the supposedly Roman way of counting the calendar which proceeds backward from the “Kalends” or “first day” of the succeeding month. It was chosen to celebrate Christmas on Octavo Kalendas Januarii, or “the eighth day before the Kalends or first day of January.” Well then, St. John’s Nativity was put on the eighth day before the Kalends of July. The difference, of course, is, whereas there are thirty-one days in December there are only thirty days in June. So counting back eight days from July first brings us to today, June 24th! (So what? So I just found that interesting, that’s all). Continue reading “A Voice Cries—a Little and a Lot”

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God's Planting of Grace

Text: Ezekiel 17:22-24
Date: Pentecost III (Proper 6) + 6/17/12

There are times when our lives seem to be going in a pleasant and positive direction: Ah, “Summertime and the livin’ is easy, fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high.” In times like those it’s easier to believe that God is in control and blessing us with His grace. Then, of course, are those other times, times maybe of disappointment or the diagnosis of cancer, times of unemployment or of failure, times of depression or war. At times like those it’s easier to wonder whether God is even there much less in control. As God’s people God’s Word tells us that He is in control and in the business of blessing in bad times as well as good. It’s just that it’s harder for us to see in bad times, even to the point of the despair of faith, that there is any incentive to hope in God. Continue reading “God's Planting of Grace”

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Christ Came to Defeat Satan

Text: Genesis 3:8-15
Date: Pentecost II + 6/10/12

The Word before us today requires your acceptance, agreement and belief that there is a person-ality behind all evil, conflict, hatred, mayhem and murder in the world. That person is Beelzebul, Satan, the fallen angel called the devil. Many, including Jesus’ own family, tried to explain His growing popularity, His miracles and even His casting out of unclean spirits. His family said, “He is out of his mind.” But the officials from the head shed in Jerusalem charged Him, saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” The truth is that behind all evil is the spiritual warfare of which the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians, saying, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:11-12). The old evil foe continues his warring madness to this day trying to take down as many with him as he can before the final judgment. By faith in Christ our Lord Himself gives us the defensive armor to withstand the devil’s schemes and the one offensive weapon, namely, the Word of God. As you hear God’s Word today it is a most uncomfortable and troublesome moment for the prince of demons. Continue reading “Christ Came to Defeat Satan”

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One is Holy, Holy, Holy

Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
Date: The Holy Trinity + 6/3/12

This day, the octave of (or first Sunday after) the Day of Pentecost, is the only day of the year named and dedicated to a Biblical doctrine, namely, the Holy Trinity, the triune nature of God. There is no “seat” (sedes) of this doctrine in one scripture passage. It is a mystery that takes three long paragraphs to describe in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, and even longer in the Athanasian Creed. The three scripture readings appointed in the lectionary to be read today themselves only point to this mystery but do not attempt to explain it. In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks of God as having sent Him (the Son) into the world and that salvation comes to a person by being born from above by water and the Spirit. In Acts 2 we heard the continuation of Peter’s Pentecost sermon where, in explanation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he speaks of “God,” and of Jesus as the patriarch David’s Lord. First, however, in one of my favorite passages, the call of Isaiah in Isaiah 6, where it seems the Trinity is strongly hinted at in the song of the angels and at the end; “hinted at” but not “explained.” Continue reading “One is Holy, Holy, Holy”

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Fresh Breath

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Date: Day of Pentecost + 5/27/12

On the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead, on the tenth day since His ascension into heaven, and on the day of your Holy Baptism, our Lord Jesus sent the Helper, the Spirit of truth, the Witness, the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life who proceeds from the Father and proceeds also from the Son, who, with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, the same Spirit who spoke by the prophets. He spoke through Moses and Isaiah and Ezekiel, and through Matthew and John, Luke and Paul and through countless servants sent throughout the world with the Word, the eternal life by faith in Jesus. Through their word, through God’s Word, this Spirit creates saving faith when and where it pleases Him in those who hear the Gospel. Today we commemorate the day when God first poured out His Spirit on those gathered together in Jerusalem so that, filled with the Holy Spirit, He might get the ball rolling—the preaching of the Gospel and administration of the sacraments, the making of disciples of all nations beginning in Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth. So today is kind of like a family reunion with all those who have gone before us who have been reborn and made alive by the Spirit, the Wind, and the Breath. Continue reading “Fresh Breath”

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11 + 1 = 13

Text: Acts 1:12-26
Date: Easter VII + 5/20/12

The sermon title, “11 + 1 = 13,” is, at first, intended to be a little humorous comment about finding a replacement for Judas Iscariot to restore the number of apostles to the original number of twelve. The humor I see is that though in today’s text, Acts chapter one, Peter and about 120 others solemnly choose Matthias to be the replacement, in Acts chapter nine Jesus Himself directly chooses Saul of Tarsus for this purpose. So, not to disallow the choice of Peter and the first “voters assembly,” instead of restoring the number of apostles to twelve the end result is thirteen! Yet I do not find this observation to be purely amusing nor incidental. For we are to discover that the Gospel of the resurrection not only restores life and things to merely the original design of creation before the fall into sin but salvation in Christ actually increases God’s gift of life to be even more than it was before. The resurrection, for instance, turned the old first day of the week, Sunday, to be now also the eighth day, the eternal day, the first day of eternal life. The Ascension of Our Lord elevated human nature itself to be identified with the divine. And the promise of our resurrection in the new heavens and earth is that we will reign with Christ (2 Tim 2:12). As Martin Luther wrote of all the baptized in reference to Psalm 82 which says, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment” (Ps 82:1), “for we are all the children of God…and therefore we are gods”[1] Continue reading “11 + 1 = 13”

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More Water!

Text: Acts 10:34-48
Date: Easter VI + 5/13/12

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! For thirty-six days now the Lord, risen from the dead, has appeared alive to His disciples. Quoting St. Paul’s list, “he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time…. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor 15:5-8). But that appearance was some time after the event we celebrate this Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter, our Lord’s last appearance and His Ascension into heaven. There the last thing He said to His disciples echoed the first thing God said to Abraham of old. As God promised that through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, so our Lord commanded to make disciples of all nations. The salvation of God is not for the Jews only but through the Jews to all people everywhere. That was the burden for Peter’s understanding as the preaching of the apostles began to awaken even the Gentiles who heard. As the mighty Word of the gospel awakened the Ethiopian eunuch who asked Philip, “See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized?” so St. Peter asked, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Last Sunday we heard of the necessity of baptism with water. Today we hear about more faith and More Water! Continue reading “More Water!”

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See, Here Is Water!

Text: Acts 8:26-40
Date: Easter V + 5/6/12

The Lord is risen! He is risen, indeed! After appearing to His disciples a number of times after Easter, on the fortieth day at His Ascension He mapped out the mission that they should preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, baptize and teach beginning in Jerusalem, then branching out to all Judea, even including Samaria and, as He said, “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This mission happened quickly as today, already in Acts chapter eight, we’re told of St. Philip being directed to go down from Jerusalem to Gaza. There He encounters a man from Ethiopia, which at the time was considered to be part of the end of the known world. Through an interesting turn of events Philip “told him the good news about Jesus” (8:35). He must have done quite a thorough job of it for “as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?’” Nothing prevented him, so he was and he “went on his way rejoicing.” Continue reading “See, Here Is Water!”

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There Is Salvation in No One Else

Text: Acts 4:1-12
Date: Easter IV + 4/29/12

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Appearing to His apostles He commanded them from now on to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations for the salvation of every person. We have seen in our readings from the Book of Acts that, after Pentecost, Saint Peter did this very thing. After bringing the release, forgiveness and even physical healing of Christ to a lame man on the porch of the temple, when the people were starring at him and the apostle John thinking they were looking at some sort of fantastic miracle workers, Peter preached to them Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen again. Peter invited them to saving faith in Jesus with the result that “many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.” Today it is estimated that that number has grown to around 2.1 billion or one-third of the current population of the world. Continue reading “There Is Salvation in No One Else”