Category: Epiphany Sermons

Text: Luke 9:28-36
Date: Transfiguration + 2/10/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. For we have heard and we believe that He has come in human flesh, that He continues to come to us now by means of His Word and Sacraments, and that He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead and bring us to the life of the world to come. Today we are given a glimpse, a vision of His glory. But it is given to us to remind us that He entered into His glory only after and through His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension. We are to know that that’s the only way to glory for us too, through suffering to glory. This vision is given to us to encourage and strengthen our faith that we may persevere in hope. Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord. Continue reading “A Vision of Glory”

Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10 & Luke 4:43
Date: Epiphany IV + 2/3/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. He is blessed because He has come for us and He has appointed us to proclaim and to preach His coming. Jeremiah said, “I must preach” (Jer 1:7). Jesus said, “I must preach” (Luke 4:43). St. Paul said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). And I say today, “I Must Preach.” Speaking for all, we “must preach” because we have been called and sent by God to preach, to announce, to proclaim, to evangelize, to declare with all the baptized the wonderful deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light; to announce the light of the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life by faith in Christ. This divine “must” is compelling. Who knows how it comes to a person? It came to Jeremiah through “the word of the Lord.” It came to the man named Saul of Tarsus through a vision, a miracle and instruction. It comes to men today in many and various ways by means of the Spirit of God calling and forming and sending through the Church. It comes to all in Holy Baptism. It comes to us because Jesus has come. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Continue reading “I Must Preach”

Text: Nehemiah 8
Date: Epiphany III + 1/27/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, for until and unless He comes there is no blessing, no joy. But the King has come and we rejoice. Or do we? Today’s readings contrast different reactions to God’s Word. In the Gospel Jesus’ hometown folks were at first speaking well of Him and “marveling at [his] gracious words.” Their initial “joy,” however, quickly turned to anger and wrath when He predicted their rejection of Him. In today’s Old Testament reading, parts of the Book of the Law of Moses were read and explained before a people who had forgotten God’s Word. They first responded with tears of repentance and profound worship. But then they were told not to mourn or weep. “Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Last Sunday we took notice of how the Lord’s earthly ministry began with a note of joy, saying, “Your God Rejoices Over You.” Today we observe the reality that people react to the claims of God’s Word differently and ask, “Do We Rejoice Over God?” Continue reading “Do We Rejoice Over God?”

Text: Isaiah 62:5 and John 2:1-11
Date: Epiphany II + 1/20/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed because He is the King and Lord of love, the love of God that passes all understanding, the love that moved Him to save you from your sins and death, the love that even now woos you, the Church, to be His bride. “For…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” “Your God Rejoices Over You.” Continue reading “Your God Rejoices Over You”

Text: Luke 3:21-22
Date: The Baptism of Our Lord + 1/13/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. And how do we know Jesus is the King? John the Baptist said, “I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33-34). Though God in all His Persons has always been King of the Universe, the assumed human nature of the Son of God was anointed as King with the waters of the Jordan River, the One who would, one day, be welcomed into the holy city, and welcomed by us in His Holy Sacrament, with the cheer, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” Continue reading “You Are My Beloved”

Text: Matthew 2:1-12
Date: The Epiphany of Our Lord + 1/6/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! When the magi from the east came to acknowledge the newborn King of the Jews it was not a summit of three or four kings but only one: the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Of course there was another king lurking in the background, an evil and ruthless king named Herod. But that king did not come in the name of the Lord. So today we hear the Word of the Lord that says it is only through King Jesus that “Light Shines on All.” Continue reading “Light Shines on All”

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”