Text: Matthew 16:13-20
Date: Pentecost XII (Proper 16A) + 8/27/17
Peter J. Scaer, a professor at our Ft. Wayne seminary, recently wrote, “A couple of people have come up to me today and said, basically, ‘What matters is that we all believe the same thing, and that we love one another. That’s what religion is all about.’” And then he makes the critique, “It’s like they’ve swallowed and regurgitated an aisle of Hallmark Cards.” He then goes on about how Christianity is about more than that, namely, Jesus Christ and what He did to save us from God’s judgment. Continue reading “The Keys of the Kingdom”
Text: Matthew 15:21-28
Date: Pentecost XI (Proper 15A) + 8/20/17
Today’s readings from the Bible highlight the universal intent of God’s plan of salvation. After all, when the Bible says, “God so loved the world,” it means the whole world, all nations, every single person. It is not only for those of Jewish descent or for Germans, North Americans, or Lutherans. Isaiah delivered the Word of God, saying, “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord…these I will bring to my holy mountain…their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” St. Paul is at pains to explain how, though the promised Savior came through the Jews, nevertheless that was no automatic advantage for them. But “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” Continue reading “One Fellowship of Love”
Text: Matthew 14:22-33
Date: Pentecost X (Proper 14A) + 8/13/17
Today we ask simply, of what are you afraid? There are fears, for instance, regarding having enough money for the month. There were occasions when the best counselling I could provide a couple troubled by finances was teaching them how to create a budget. Some fear for their physical well being whether regarding hunger or health, illness or injury, or changing conditions requiring medications or monitoring. There are fears related to the world like threatening weather or national relations like the current concern over North Korea. Having almost drown when I was little I was always afraid of water as a child until an amazing man my first year in college taught me how to swim in five weeks! However, we still need to have a healthy fear called respect for water. Of what are you afraid? Continue reading “O Hear Us When We Cry to Thee”
Text: Matthew 13:44-52
Date: Pentecost VIII (Proper 12A) + 7/30/17
As we finish this great chapter of parables of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel with the parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price, I wish you to have in mind the catechism meaning of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. Do you remember it? “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” We say this because the Bible makes it absolutely clear that, on the one hand, fallen, sinful, spiritually blind, weak, and dead human beings like you and me are completely and totally unable on our own power either to believe in Jesus Christ or even to come to Him. Now a lot of people disagree with that as they think believing and faith is a result of a decision I make. How could it be otherwise, they say, and still be real and personal? The answer is that God works through His Word and is able to do the miraculous, even changing unbelievers into faithful disciples. In other words, it’s all His work, not ours. Continue reading “His Greatest Treasure”
Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Date: Pentecost VII (Proper 11) + July 23, 2017
What an appropriate Gospel reading for us on this first Sunday meeting here in the Troy Historic Village. [Thanks to everyone who helped the move yesterday.] It is appropriate because Jesus is here speaking to two different audiences; first to the great crowds that had gathered about him, so great that Jesus got into a boat to make a sort of amphitheater of the shore of the sea, then secondly to his disciples only in the house. With our change in location many have thought this may be an opportunity for outreach into our new community. We encourage visitors to check us out, but more to check out Jesus whom we proclaim. Continue reading “Shine Like the Sun in the Kingdom”
Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Date: Pentecost VI (Proper 10) and The Disposition of a Church Building + 7/16/17
(This is the last Sunday we meet at the facilities of Lutheran High School Northwest, 1000 Bagley, Rochester Hills.)
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Is. 40:8). Today we are aware that we are the grass and flower, we are the ones along with the whole world around us who wither and fade. Time goes by faster and faster. Our lives seem increasingly insignificant and our life so small. The one thing, says Isaiah, that stands forever is the word of our God. And that word is our life. Continue reading “Hear the Word of the Kingdom”
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”
