Author: Al

Text: Matthew 11:25-30
Date: Pentecost V (Proper 9) + 7/9/17

The Word of God before us today describes the struggle of the life and faith of the disciple of Jesus Christ in this world. The Introit from Psalm 91 speaks of how we need God’s shelter and shadow, bringing to mind, for instance, a hard day’s work under the summer sun. Without shade (or in my case a hat) the sun can burn us. We prayed in the Collect about “the wearisome changes of this world.” We get tired, exhausted, bushed after a long day of work or the struggle of living amidst the confusions, contradictions and problems of the world. This is nothing new. How did The Preacher, Qoheleth put it: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccl 1:1, 8, 14). Continue reading “The Kingly Invitation”

Text: Mathew 10:34-42
Date: Pentecost IV (Proper 8a) + 7/2/17

Peace be to you, and grace from Him who freed us from our sins (Rev 1:4-5).

You’ve heard the term “spin” meaning a person’s treatment of the facts, twisting and turning them to appear to support their own desired outcome. Such was the case in Jeremiah’s time when Hananiah, a false prophet, came on the scene seemingly contradicting what the true prophet was sent to speak. Hananiah spoke of the deliverance of God’s people and the restoration of the temple. Though he knew this was “spin,” Jeremiah began sort of in a mocking tone, saying, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true.” But he warned, “the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.” Well, it didn’t come to pass. As Jeremiah said earlier, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jer 6:14). Continue reading “A Kingly Crown to Gain”

Text: Matthew 10:32-33
Date: Pentecost III (Proper 7a) + 6/25/17 + Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

Today we have the delightful happenstance that the commemoration of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession of 1530 today is the perfect illustration of the conclusion of our Lord’s Missionary Discourse in Matthew’s Gospel, namely, that we are to confess Jesus boldly. “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32). That’s what the Augsburg Confession is all about, it’s aim, “one simple truth and Christian concord, that for the future one pure and true religion may be embraced and maintained by us, that as we all are under one Christ and do battle under Him, so we may be able also to live in unity and concord in the one Christian Church” (AC Preface 4). It is fundamental to our Biblical confession of Christ before the world of eternal truths, deeply anchored in the Word of God, enunciated in a simple, extremely deep and eminently practical way. Continue reading “Christ, the Savior King is Come!”

Text: Matthew 9:35—10:8
Date: Pentecost II (Proper 6a) + 6/18/17

On this day we begin the long green season of the time of the Church, the Sundays after Pentecost. Here we begin to retrace the words and acts of our Lord Jesus but not as an historical narrative as in the Lord’s or Festival Half of the Church Year, but now to discover the pure doctrine and teaching of the Christian faith. We continue to rejoice in the Good News of the salvation of the world, our salvation, through the merits of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. Now it is our prayer as St. Paul put it to the Ephesians, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Then he concludes, saying, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:17-22). So today we are saying that a person comes to this saving faith through the church. Continue reading “How Beautiful the Feet”

Text: Acts 2:1-21
Date: The Day of Pentecost + 6/4/17

On this day every year, and unlike all other festivals where the Holy Gospel leads the way, on this day every year the main reading is the account of the Day of Pentecost recorded by the Holy Evangelist Saint Luke in the book of Acts. Almost like the birth process everything has been leading up to this day—everything. The Holy Spirit made His first appearance already in creation in the second verse of Genesis one. Throughout the Old Testament the Spirit was “limited” so to speak in leading and guiding and causing faith in the hearts of God’s chosen people: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David who prayed “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me” (Ps 25:3-4). We heard how the Spirit came down, not upon all, but upon only the seventy men of the elders of the people of Israel as they were on their way in the Exodus, but only to them. Nevertheless Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wished, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” And how we see and hear the Spirit in the coming of Jesus into our flesh: the inspired songs of Simeon and Mary. Jesus Himself foretold of the coming of the Holy Spirit any number of times, but not yet, as St. John told us today, “because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come: Now Cause the Word of Life to Shine”