Author: Al

Text: Mark 9:2-9
Date: Transfiguration + 2/22/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Peter, James and John only. No one else saw it. Jesus, suddenly an explosion of light. And suddenly Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. Then Peter mumbles something about setting up tents. Then the bright cloud, and the Voice from the cloud. Then, suddenly, when they looked around—Peter, James and John only—they saw no one but Jesus. And that’s the point. If you’re looking for the true God, if you’re looking for salvation from sin and death, if you’re looking for healing or some direction in life, it will be found in no one but Jesus. Continue reading “Ready for the Cross”

Text: Mark 1:40-45
Date: Epiphany VI + 02/15/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

“If you will.” “If you will,” said the leper who came to Jesus, kneeling before Him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Now does that sound like faith? It may sound like at least a little faith.

Jesus was known to more and more people as a holy man who could and would heal people and even cast out demons. So this man comes to Jesus. He doesn’t call Him “Lord” or even “Sir.” He doesn’t prostrate himself or worship Him but merely politely kneels. The first word out of his mouth is not a word of faith but of doubt. The first word out of his mouth is like that from the latest Met Life commercials seeking some sort of assurance or insurance “for the ifs in life.” “If.” “If you will.” “If it is somehow within your purpose or desire, Jesus, you can, you are able to heal me, to make me clean.” His first words question more than know and believe the will and purpose of Jesus’ presence and ministry. It is possible, the man supposes, that it is somehow NOT within Jesus’ will, purpose or desire (though He has healed and cleansed many) to heal and cleanse this particular leper. So, I guess, in a supposed at least halfway humility he allows for the possibility that Jesus just may reject him and his request. “If.” “If you will, you can make me clean.” Continue reading “If”

Text: Mark 1:29-39
Date: Epiphany V + 2/8/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

I was going to have an object lesson this morning. I was going to place this reading desk over on the left side of the altar from your perspective. Then I was simply going to begin the sermon wondering and complaining that something was just not right. Then I began to think of all the churches I can remember being in, picturing in my mind on which side of the chancel the pulpit was located. If your experience is like mine, almost all the churches I can think of have the pulpit on the right side (Grace English, Chicago; St. Paul’s, Wood River; Trinity, Jackson; St. Mark’s, West Bloomfield; Zion, Detroit; Valparaiso University Chapel; Kramer Chapel, Ft. Wayne; Mt. Olive, Minneapolis; St. Lorenz, Frankenmuth; and we could go on and on). But there are a few with the pulpit on the left side (Immanuel, Rock Island, IL.; St. John’s, Taylor, MI; the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis). Like so many details of church history and architecture, my brief survey suggested there is no tradition or “right and wrong” of the “right or left” controversy as far as the placement of the pulpit goes. The only point was how we tend to be reluctant to change. We prefer the familiar, the predictable. And when something’s different, it throws us, at least for a moment.

Introducing Jesus to his readers in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, the Evangelist doesn’t wait very long for you to figure out that Jesus is a powerful preacher and an amazing healer of people with various diseases and even casting out demons, before he throws you a curve, something unpredictable: “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’” Their concern seemed to be that Jesus was not acting in accordance with everyone’s expectations. Continue reading “Unpredictable”

Text: Mark 1:21-28
Date: Epiphany IV + 2/1/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Okay. Let’s get this out of the way, right off the bat. Today is the Sunday we’ve all been waiting for. It’s been called the game with the largest television audience of any other broadcast sport. The players appear to be healthy and in shape for the challenge. The weather is cooperating. And I’m ready to make my prediction. I’m sure that, by now, you all have figured out that I’m referring to . . . “the Greatest Show on Grass,” the FBR (Phoenix) Open at the TPC of Scottsdale, Arizona! What? What football game? Anyway, Scottsdale, sunny and 74 is better than Tampa Bay, mostly sunny and 69, and certainly better than here, cloudy and 32.

On a higher plain, however, this Sunday gets to the dramatic action of the story of Christ we’ve been waiting for. So far He has been born as a baby, passively received baptism by John and quietly called certain men to follow Him. Today he astonishes people with his teaching and casts out a screaming demon from a man. Continue reading “Come, O Christ, and Reign Among Us”

Text: Mark 1:14-20
Date: Epiphany III + 1/25/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Today’s Gospel declares that there are two types of divine call from God. The first is the universal invitation to salvation as when our Lord Jesus Christ came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” The second sort of divine call is the individual summons of certain men to the service of the apostolic ministry as when He personally called Philip and Nathanael as we heard last week, and today as we have the calling of Simon and Andrew, James and John saying, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” I emphasize that these are two separate sorts of calls because in homogenizing them or combining them we confuse both the office of the ministry and the priesthood of all believers. Continue reading “Listen! God is Calling”

Text: John 1:43-51
Date: Epiphany II + 1/18/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In these first few Sundays of the Epiphany season we are told of Jesus’ calling of his disciples or apostles—today Philip and Nathanael, next Sunday Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John—the final total to be twelve in all. In these words we are to see and understand the fact that today Christ has called us, and still calls all, to follow him and, as with his first disciples, to know what that call means. In the context of John’s Gospel he makes it clear that to be called to follow Jesus means to be changed, transformed, named and claimed by Christ and made to be part of his new creation. Today we hear that when Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, he said, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” This puzzled Nathanael at first. But as we shall see, it is because Jesus himself is The True Israelite that all who come to him are given a new life and identity and destiny in him. Continue reading “The True Israelite”

Text: Mark 1:4-11
Date: Baptism of Our Lord + Epiphany I + 1/11/09

Once again, in a matter of only four weeks or so, we hear of John the Baptist preaching and baptizing in the wilderness area of the Jordan River. Of course, this time it is for the purpose of telling of the beginning of our Lord’s active earthly ministry that begins with His baptism. Before we speak of Jesus’ baptism, however, let us listen again to the Baptist and consider the significance of his baptism. Continue reading “The Baptism of Jesus”