Author: Al

Text: 2 Kings 2:1-12
Date: Transfiguration + 2/19/12

“After six days,” six days since our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples of His coming crucifixion, death and resurrection, He was transfigured, privately, before the inner group of Peter, James and John. Today, as every year, we celebrate on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season The Transfiguration of Our Lord, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the penitential season of Lent, the exclamation point of the entire Epiphany season which has announced the Light that has come into the world, ushered in by the star of Bethlehem, shown forth in the preaching and healing ministry of Jesus, but now to be dimmed and even doused in the darkness of His greatest work, His innocent suffering and blessed death on the cross. It is a sort of reassurance for us, that is, for faith to endure through the scandal and offense of our Lord’s bitter suffering and cruel death. As the Lord’s Supper is said to be for faith “a foretaste of the feast to come,” so the Transfiguration of Our Lord is for faith a glimpse, an earnest of our own resurrection on the last day and the sinless purity God sees in us through the blood of Jesus shed for us. Continue reading “Walking with God”

Text: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Date: Epiphany VI + 2/12/12

A man sick with leprosy came to Jesus, “and he was made clean.” A great man named Naaman sick with leprosy came to the prophet Elisha, “and he was clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the man when He healed him. Elisha didn’t even “wave his hand” but told Naaman to go wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. The theme of Jesus’ healing ministry continues today. Bodily healing by God is not done for its own sake but for the sake of proclaiming that God’s salvation is for the whole person, body and soul, the greatest healing, the last laugh against sin and death we could say, “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Continue reading “Wash and Be Clean”

Text: Isaiah 40:21-31
Date: Epiphany V + 2/5/12

According to Saint Mark, when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ appeared, the first thing that strikes us is His ministry of healing. His power to heal extends from the most dramatic casting out of demons to what appears to us to be the relatively minor condition of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law lying ill with a fever. Physical healing of the body is one aspect of the gospel of salvation, for, after this life, we do not turn into angels or disembodied spirits. The greatest Christ-ian hope of healing is the promised resurrection of the body, the promise of new bodies for old. We remain human beings of God’s own creation and design forever. The underlying cause of all sickness and disease is not just a medical con-dition but the spiritual condition called “sin.” “You sin, you experience separations of all kinds, you get sick, you die” says the Bible. You don’t sin, you don’t get sick, you don’t die. All have sinned. Therefore all die. Continue reading “Not Faint, Not Weary”

Text: Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Date: Epiphany IV + 1/29/12

Near the end of his service as prophet and leader of God’s people Moses announced, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.” And the Lord reiterated Moses’ words. The question is, who would that prophet like Moses be?

Cecil B. DeMille raised up the actor Charlton Heston to star in the memorable and award-winning 1956 movie “The Ten Commandments.” But here Moses himself and not a successor was portrayed. So that can’t be it. So also with the recent report that Warner Brothers is closing on a contract with Steven Spielberg to direct a new Moses epic titled “Gods and Kings” to start production early next year. In the absence of Charlton Heston, who of today’s actors would you cast to play Moses? Continue reading “A Prophet Like Moses”

Text: Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Date: Epiphany III + 1/22/12

“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.” The first time it was a disaster. Or, was it? For the first time the word of the Lord came to him, at the command, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it,” Jonah rose but to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord (Jonah 1:1-3). Now which of the prophets of old wouldn’t respond immediately and dutifully obey the call of the Lord? Most did, albeit with various degrees of hesitation. But the Bible is no mere human work and no propaganda piece skewed to make its characters seem to have super-human strength or insight or dedication or even faith. So here we have the call of the Lord coming to one of God’s people, the great grandson of King Jehu, but he disobeys and flees from the Lord’s presence. But where, pray tell, is the Lord not present? So God followed Jonah and tracked him down, sending a great storm to intercept his getaway. Continue reading “God's Call to Repentance”

Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Date: Epiphany II + 1/15/12

God called Abram out of his unbelief and idolatry to be­come the father of faith for the whole world. The Bible simply says, “the Lord said to Abram.” How the Lord spoke to Abram is not said. Interestingly, Luther wrote, “did he hear this voice from God Himself? I am convinced that he was not called directly by God without the ministry, as it is related below (Gen. 18:2) that God visited him, conversed with him, and was even the guest of Abraham; but I believe that this command was brought to him either by the patriarch Shem personally or by some others who had been sent by Shem.”8[1] Continue reading “Psalm 139 and "Speak, Lord, Your Servant Listens"”

Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Date: Epiphany II + 1/15/12

God called Abram out of his unbelief and idolatry to be­come the father of faith for the whole world. The Bible simply says, “the Lord said to Abram.” How the Lord spoke to Abram is not said. Interestingly, Luther wrote, “did he hear this voice from God Himself? I am convinced that he was not called directly by God without the ministry, as it is related below (Gen. 18:2) that God visited him, conversed with him, and was even the guest of Abraham; but I believe that this command was brought to him either by the patriarch Shem personally or by some others who had been sent by Shem.”8[1] Continue reading “Psalm 139 and "Speak, Lord, Your Servant Listens"”

 

Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29 – setting by Allen D. Lunneberg

Text: Genesis 1:1-5
Date: The Baptism of Our Lord + Epiphany I + 1/8/12

“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters” (Ps 29:3). Another psalm says, “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created” (Ps 104:30). Today we are called to attend to the voice, the waters, the Spirit, and creation. Continue reading “"And God Said…."”