Category: Pentecost Sermons

Text: Mark 7:31-37
Date: Pentecost XIV (Proper 18) + 9/6/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In today’s Gospel, Mark the Evangelist clearly has in mind the prophecy of Isaiah that we heard earlier, “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not!’…. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Is. 35:4a, 5). For the Jewish scribes had always said this would be a sign of the Messiah to come. Well, today, here He is. And so we repeat the comforting prophetic word at His coming to us today, “Do Not Fear.”

There are many kinds of fear. One is the fear of failure. It can probably be said of all of us that we can all do a few things well. Perhaps it can even be said that each one of us can do at least one thing well. But of none of us can it be said, “He or she has done all things well.” For, many times we fail. There is only One to whom that tribute can be paid, and we are here in worship on this day to join the chorus in the tribute that began in the region of the Decapolis, and has grown in great crescendo through the centuries to this day, saying of Jesus, “He has done all things well!” He is why God can say, and we can say to each other, “Do Not Fear.” Continue reading “Do Not Fear”

Text: Mark 7:14-23
Date: Pentecost XIII (Proper 17) + 8/30/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

St. Mark, in his Gospel, has been telling us of the initial criticisms of the Jewish leaders against Jesus by blaming Him for not training His followers correctly, that they are guilty of breaking the religious rules regarding ritual cleanliness and purity. As Mark tells it we discover that the real problem with Jesus’ enemies was their own hypocrisy, that is, relying only on the outward appearance of following God’s Word, as He quoted to them the Bible passage, Isaiah 29:13, “this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me” (Is. 29:13). Today’s Gospel tells of Jesus’ final words to them here, before moving on, revealing the heart of the matter, namely, sin. When it comes to God’s Laws of ritual purity, it is not, as they were thinking, what you eat or what enters your body from the outside that makes you unclean, but rather what proceeds from the inside, “from the heart.” It is the same with any sin or evil a person does. It is not, ultimately, the fault of the environment or of poor training or upbringing. “The devil made me do it” is not an acceptable excuse. By “the heart” the Bible means, of course, the center of a person’s personality, where the ego, the self and its will and its thoughts dwell. Like the physical organ called the heart, it is that center also of your personal and spiritual being. Continue reading “The Heart of the Matter”

Text: Mark 7:1-13
Date: Pentecost XII (Proper 16) + 8/23/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

From the beloved and award-winning musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” the song, “Tradition!”—

Who, day and night, must scramble for a living,
Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers?
And who has the right, as master of the house,
To have the final word at home? The Papa! Tradition!

Who must know the way to make a proper home,
A quiet home, a kosher home?
Who must raise the family and run the home,
So Papa’s free to read the holy books? The Mama! Tradition!

At three, I started Hebrew school. At ten, I learned a trade.
I hear they’ve picked a bride for me. I hope she’s pretty.
And who does Mama teach to mend and tend and fix,
Preparing me to marry whoever Papa picks? The daughter! Tradition!

The Papa, The Mama, The Son, The Daughter! Tradition!

That could be the theme song of today’s Gospel where the word “tradition” is repeated no less than six times! “For the Pharisees and all the Jews…hold to the tradition of the elders.” “There are many other traditions that they observe.” They ask Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?” Jesus calls them hypocrites and answers, saying, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” And He points to the Fourth Commandment and accuses them of “making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.” Continue reading “Tradition”

Text: John 6:50-69
Date: Pentecost XI + 8/16/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In our once-every-three-years summer vacation visit with St. John in the sixth chapter of his Gospel, we have been faithful in asking the question, “Is John chapter 6 about the Sacrament of the Altar or not?” and answering by saying, “No.” For one thing, in the sacrament Jesus says “this is my body” not as here speaking of his “flesh.” For another thing, for Jesus to speak about the sacrament (1) before its institution on the night when He was betrayed and (2) to people who would clearly have no idea what He’s talking about doesn’t make any sense. For another thing, John 6 does not talk about worthy or unworthy reception of the sacrament but about the eating or the refusal to eat the living bread. No, John 6 is not primarily about the sacrament of the altar. Continue reading “Eating and Drinking in the Kingdom”

by Seminarian David Herald.

Pentecost 10 (Proper 14), August 9, 2009

Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word

Text: John 6:22-35
Date: Pentecost IX (Proper 13) + 8/2/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In the middle of the long, green season of Sundays after Pentecost, in the second year of the three-year lectionary (Series B), Saint Mark’s short Gospel takes a little, three-week summer vacation and Saint John makes a visit with readings from the sixth chapter of his Gospel, Jesus’ “Bread of Life” discourse. Especially because John does not include the institution of the Lord’s Supper in his Gospel, and because of the words of Jesus here, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood” (v.53), the question is often asked whether this is John’s way of addressing the Sacrament of the Altar. Is John 6 about the sacrament or not? We believe, on the basis of the text, that it is not. Rather, the chapter is about faith. Nevertheless, it is obviously impossible for a Christian to read John 6 without thinking of the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood. Continue reading “Strange Bread”

Text: Mark 6:45-52
Date: Pentecost VIII (Proper 12) + 7/26/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

We live in a day when informality is “in” and formality is “out,” maybe more than ever. More places of business than you might think have so-called “casual Fridays” when all the employees are allowed to “dress down.” I, for one, have never believed that it is a universal genetic truth that men per se are uncomfortable in shirt-and-tie, but rather, it is a learned trait. It used to be, “back in the day,” that people would normally dress up to go to church on Sunday, but these days not only is informal dress acceptable, but even the slovenly (at least by some)! Continue reading “No Time for Informality”

Text: Mark 6:39 (6:30-44)
Date: Pentecost VII (Proper 11) + 7/19/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

The title for this sermon is “Symposia on Green Grass.” A “symposium” (these days) refers to a conference dedicated to the presentation of various papers or speeches and an opportunity for discussion of issues. For the past number of years, for instance, our seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana has held the annual exegetical (Biblical) symposium and a symposium on the Lutheran Confessions. The two running together, then, are referred to with the plural form of the word “symposia.” A “Symposium on Green Grass” may, at first, make you think you should expect a meeting of people interested in gardening or lawn care with presentations by True Green or Scotts fertilizer. This title is, rather, a literal quote from the Greek of today’s Gospel, St. Mark’s account of the Lord’s feeding of the 5,000 in the wilderness, v. 39 of chapter 6, where this Evangelist, and Mark alone, tells us that Jesus commanded the people to recline, quote, “symposia symposia” on the, quote, “chloro,” or “green,” “xorto.” grass. Continue reading “Symposia on Green Grass”

Text: Mark 6:14-29
Date: Pentecost VI (Proper 10) + 7/12/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Remember that the overriding question of at least the first half of Mark’s Gospel is, “Who is this Jesus?” Who is this that even the wind and sea obey Him? Who is this that such miraculous powers are at work in Him? Who is this that we hear such wisdom from Him? There were various guesses as to the answer. “Isn’t this little Jesus who grew up here whose mother and brothers and sisters we know?” “Isn’t this the carpenter?” Others answered the question in a religious way, as in today’s text. Some said He is John the Baptist come back from the dead. Others said He is Elijah who is to return before the Messiah. Others said He is a prophet. There would be still others who were not as much impressed as offended, especially as He began to gain popularity and numbers of followers. They would accuse Him of being if not in league with Satan maybe even the devil himself. Among all those answers, today it seems the most common answer to the question “Who is Jesus?” is, “Jesus is…irrelevant!” Nevertheless, the question keeps coming to you, who do you say that Jesus is? For your answer to that question reveals as much about yourself, your relationship to Him and therefore your spiritual condition, as it does about Jesus. Continue reading “Jesus' Name Has Become Known”

Text: Mark 6:1-13
Date: Pentecost V (Proper 9) + 7/5/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

The Gospel text for this morning used to be divided into two readings on two consecutive Sundays, the first, verses 1-6 concerning Jesus’ rejection in his hometown, the second, verses 7-13 concerning His sending out of the twelve disciples on their “vicarage” or student intern mini-mission. The current lectionary has combined these two sections to be proclaimed together on this one Sunday. In placing these two incidents together the Evangelist, St. Mark, seems to be saying, first, that Jesus is rejectable especially when He does not meet a person’s expectations and therefore, secondly, His disciples and Church that He sends forth in His name should expect to experience and endure the same rejection by the world. As Jesus said in another place,     “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16), and, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). This, of course, flies in the face of all those these days who think that “if we only change the way we do things a little,” in other words change the message we’ve been sent to preach, “then people will let down their defenses a little and be more easily drawn to the Church.” As we consider this text, let’s do so, therefore, remembering the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Thy kingdom come, and how that kingdom comes all by itself without our prayer when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we can believe His holy Word. Continue reading “Thy Kingdom Come”