Category: Pentecost Sermons

Text: Matthew 16:13-20
Occasion: 50^th Anniversary of Trinity Lutheran School
Date: Pentecost X + Proper 16 + 8/21/11
Trinity Lutheran Church, Jackson, Michigan

“Who do you say that I am?” asked Jesus of His disciples. Peter answered, “The Christ, the Son of the living God.” “Good for you, Pete!” “Blessed are you” responded Jesus. “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

This is the heart, the hidden part, the real wisdom behind a Lutheran school and of our Trinity Lutheran School for the past fifty years. Only things that are somehow hidden in the first place need to be revealed, revealed to us by someone else. Whether that means pulling away or removing those things that are covering up that “something” or just opening our eyes to see what should be, after all, plainly visible is the task of those sent to bring that “something” to change people’s perspective, worldview, vision and life. Thus it was that God sent His only Son into this world not to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17). In Jesus alone a person can clearly see God, the God of grace and glory. So also in Jesus’ sending of His apostolic ministers to preach and teach people God’s truth. Such has been the heart of our Lutheran schools ever since Lutherans first set foot in our land. Of course certain things of life in this world can be taught and learned by (almost) anyone, “reading, writing, arithmetic.” But the things of God, the eternal things must be revealed, revealed by God working through His Word the gift of faith in the heart. And this, above all, is what we are celebrating this year as we mark fifty years of God’s blessing of our beloved Trinity Lutheran School of Jackson, Michigan. Continue reading “50 Years of Revealing Faith”

Text: Matthew 15:21-28
Date: Pentecost IX + Proper 15 + 8/14/11

It is interesting how St. Matthew contrasts the “little-faith” of water-walking Peter in our reading last week with the “great faith” of a Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel. It is interesting, for one thing, because while Peter and those to whom the promise of the Messiah belong are slow to believe, mysteriously a woman who is not only a Gentile but even of the ancient hated religious and idolatrous enemies of Israel, the Canaanites, is pronounced by Jesus as demonstrating an exemplary faith that is “great.” This, of course, serves as another hint at God’s complete plan of salvation through the Jews to all nations reflected in today’s Old Testament reading (Isaiah 56). The woman is already, ahead of time, one of those foretold by the original promise to Abraham, “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:2). She is among those of whom the hymn sings, “A multitude comes from the east and the west To sit at the feast of salvation” (LSB 510). That God’s mercy came through the disobedience of the Jews to embrace both them and all nations is the concern of Paul’s words in today’s Epistle. This dynamic is behind Jesus’ statement, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It is in the woman’s further response that the greatness of her faith is shown. Continue reading “When Faith is Great”

Text: Matthew 14:22-33
Date: Pentecost VIII + Proper 14 + 8/7/11

What is frightening you of late? What is it that causes your deepest fears? Is it the state of the economy and your sincere doubt that those currently in control of it have the first clue as to how to turn it around? What makes you afraid these days? What is so unsettling? Maybe it’s your physical wellness and worry over what the doctor might find after a battery of tests. What do you fear most? What sends you into a panic? Unemployment numbers keep rising. And you wonder if there is anything to the dire predictions of whether or not Social Security checks will continue or if the program itself will even survive. I like it a lot when the doctor smiles and says, “You’re in good shape” because he ought to know what he’s talking about. I’m quite a bit less confident when a politician tries to reassure me that things will improve if we only first insure his or her reelection. Everything depends on who’s talking. Is it just a spin of encouragement to a blind faith in some nebulous hope of a better tomorrow? Or is there something more certain than that? Continue reading “Do Not Be Afraid”

Text: Matthew 13:44-52
Date: Pentecost VI + Proper 12 + 7/24/11

Dearly Beloved,

God loves you.

Now, that may not strike you as being any big, new news. And that would be unfortunate. God loves you. But you’ve heard it before. Don’t we already know that? John 3:16 and all; ‘God so loved the world,’ etc.? “Jesus loves me, this I know….” Continue reading “God Loves You”

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Date: Pentecost V + Proper 11 + 7/17/11

This is the way the kingdom of heaven is, the way God rules His Church and His world for now. “For now” is all the days between our Lord’s earthly ministry and the Last Day of His return in judgment. We’re not there yet. When that Day happens, when this era is over, then will be unveiled the direct, complete, full reign of God in all the splendor, glory and perfection of the life of the world to come. But “for now” God’s rule is hidden. It is happening already and yet it is not seen fully with the eye. In the parable of the Weeds our Lord is reassuring and encouraging us to keep following Him, to “hang in there,” to endure patiently the struggle of living in this world, by faith, “on this side of the kingdom of heaven.” Continue reading “Endure Patiently”

Text: Matthew 13:1-23
Date: Pentecost IV + Proper 10 + 7/10/11

Up to now Jesus had been teaching the people and His disciples in a pretty straightforward manner. Today, suddenly something changed. And His disciples noticed. He got into a boat when the crowds gathered, and He sat down in the boat, the crowd standing on the beach. He began to speak. But He began telling little stories. They weren’t jokes for entertainment because there were no punch lines and they weren’t funny stories. Well, some of the details were a little strange, but nothing to make you slap your knee and double over in laughter. Just little stories. So what changed? Continue reading “Hear the Word”

Text: Matthew 11:25-30
Date: Pentecost III + Proper 9 + 7/3/11

In the first half of Matthew’s Gospel the Evangelist tells of Jesus, Israel’s Messiah promised of old, and His rapidly developing reputation. “His fame spread throughout all Syria” and he healed many sick people. “Great crowds followed him from Galilee…and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (Mt 4:24-25). Crowds were “astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Mt 7:28). Finally Matthew relates our Lord’s Calling of the twelve disciples or apostles. Beginning with chapter eleven, however, things begin to turn and the opposition increases especially among the religious leaders. Continue reading “My Yoke, My Rest”

Text: Matthew 10:34-42
Date: Pentecost II + Proper 8 + 6/26/11

Our Lord Jesus Christ chose twelve men whom He appointed to follow Him, learn from Him, and tell others what they had learned. They were to be the eye- and ear-witnesses of “all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning, from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us” (Acts 1:21-22), witnesses of the resurrection. All of them would be missionaries and preachers. Some would write parts of the inspired New Testament scriptures. However, in addition to them, all believers also serve in a missionary activity of witness, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Such is the burden of Jesus’ great Missionary Discourse of Matthew chapter ten. The first part concerns especially the outreach of the Twelve to the Israelites alone. The second part has in mind the outreach also to the Gentiles, all nations, and as such the task that is before us to this day through the twenty-first century to our Lord’s return on the Last Day. Continue reading “Equipped for Peace”

Text: Matthew 28:16-20
Date: The Holy Trinity + Pentecost I + 6/19/11

Back in “the day” when I began my studies at the seminary it was the tradition for each incoming class to adopt a motto or quote from the Bible as their class theme. I don’t remember who made the choice but ours, the class of 1975-1979, was what was called The Great Commission, part of today’s Gospel, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Those words, I suppose, were intended to emphasize our enthusiasm to prepare ourselves for this, what we assumed was THE main task of the ministry and of the Church, to get going and make disciples for Jesus. Continue reading “A Parting Blessing”

Text: John 7:37-39
Date: Day of Pentecost + 6/12/11

Of all the other feasts appointed by the Lord in the Old Testament two alone are fulfilled, completed and included in the Christian calendar, that is, they have achieved the goal for which they were created and commanded only with regard to the earthly ministry of the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those two feasts are Passover and Pentecost. The Passover or Paschal feast prepared for, pointed to and was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Day of Pentecost prepared for, pointed to and was fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Christians fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection. The Passover with its sacrifice of a lamb, the sign of blood protecting God’s people from the angel of death and the resulting deliverance from the slavery of Egypt was appointed by God with the goal of proclaiming His deliverance of people from the slavery of sin and death through His own sacrifice of blood in the Person of Jesus. Pentecost, a harvest festival of first fruits, was appointed by God with the goal of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the preaching about Jesus on a day when people from all over the inhabited world were in attendance in Jerusalem. The first fruits festival was a thanksgiving to God as a sort of guarantee that the rest of the crop will come in in its time. As St. Paul proclaimed the risen Christ as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:20), our risen Lord’s resurrection is the guarantee of your resurrection and that of all who believe in Him. Continue reading “You Have Received the Holy Spirit”