Text: Nehemiah 8
Date: Epiphany III + 1/24/16
Synagogue. The word literally means to bring together or an assembly. So it is used to describe especially a Jewish congregation or house of worship. The synagogue is for the sacrifice of prayer and teaching since the old animal sacrifices may only be offered in the Jerusalem Temple. Continue reading “Synagogue”
Text: Isaiah 62:1-5
Date: Epiphany II + 1/17/16
You all know the recent triumphs of the demonstrably very small homosexual lobby especially pressuring the Supreme Court of The United States of America to presume to change the definition of marriage to the great confusion and consternation of many, especially the faithfully Biblical and orthodox Holy Christian Church. I say they presume to change the definition because it is not within the power of any human government to change a fundamental part of the creation of God. God created marriage. And we discover today that He created it for more than just establishing and promulgating human society. He created it because marriage is of the very nature and essence of God’s relationship with His holy, redeemed people. Remember how Saint Paul, as he was talking about marriage, said, “‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’” And then he continued, saying, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:31-32). That always seems like such a strange comment coming out of left field, so to speak, especially if it is read as one of the lessons at a wedding. In the parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25) Jesus refers to Himself as the bridegroom. The Church is the Bride of Christ. Continue reading “Called By a New Name”
Text: Isaiah 43:1-7
Date: Epiphany I + Baptism of Our Lord 1.10.16
On the First Sunday after the Epiphany we always remember, celebrate and proclaim the baptism of Our Lord by John the Baptist. Having worshipped at the nativity, then the circumcision, then the presentation in the temple, after the family’s escape or flight into Egypt and His surprising appearance as a twelve-year-old child in the temple, today marks the beginning of our Lord’s active earthly ministry. Whereas during Christmas we have witnessed His birth, His being made man as the result of so many Old Testament promises and predictions of God, now, when Jesus was about thirty years old, we begin to tell the Gospel of our salvation and the salvation of the whole world by our Lord’s active righteousness (living faithfully with us under God’s Law) leading up to His passive righteousness (His crowning, atoning, redeeming work on the cross, His innocent suffering and death). Continue reading “Called by My Name”
Text: 1 Kings 3:4-15
Date: Christmas II + 1/3/16
On the eighth day after His birth, this little Babe so few days old was received as a member of the covenant of God through the rite of circumcision. Today is the tenth day. Especially in a secularized world that considers Christmas to be over on December 26, and as even our own Sunday lectionary propels us forward on this tenth day of Christmas to consider the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, it is good for us to pause, to put on the brakes, to continue our celebration of Christmas in real time. I mean the glow has not yet faded, at least our trees are still up, and the lights are still there on Main Street in downtown Rochester at least through today. Continue reading “God's Gift of Wisdom”
Text: Exodus 13:1-3a, 11-15
Date: Christmas I + 12/27/15
On this third day of Christmas the word of God tells us about the thirty-third day after Jesus’ circumcision. We will celebrate the circumcision of our Lord on the eighth day according to the Law of Moses, on January first, the eighth day according to the Church’s calendar when Jesus was circumcised in His home town of Bethlehem. The next important requirement of the Law of God, however, was the purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus, her first-born, with the appointed sacrifice. This is one of the oldest and most important of God’s covenantal laws as we heard its institution immediately preceding the Passover Exodus of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. It was to remind and remember that fundamental, original deliverance by God. God’s final plague and sign to Pharaoh was the death of all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. So now God claims the firstborn of His people and their beasts as sacrifices of praise to Him, a reminder of God’s original deliverance. When asked by your son what this ceremony means they were to say, “I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.” To redeem means to buy back, to save by means of paying the redemption price. Today we hear of the Redeemer being redeemed, that is, dedicated to the service of the God who sent Him. He Himself would be the redemption price for the salvation of the whole world, for your salvation. Continue reading “Redeem the Redeemer”
Text: Micah 5:2-5a
Date: Advent IV + 12/20/15
Is God still in charge? And how can we tell? God’s word is full of promises, promises of salvation of healing of blessing and of peace. Yet we ask “Is God still in charge?” because a lot of the time we do not see His salvation, healing, blessing or peace. Continue reading “Jump for Joy (Is God Still in Control?)”
Text: Zephaniah 3:14-20 / Luke 7:27-28
Date: Advent III + 12/13/15
If last Sunday we needed to look very carefully to find the good news of the Gospel at all with the Baptist thundering at us “you brood of vipers” calling us to repentance, this Sunday, “Rejoice Sunday,” blasts the bright light and great goal of God’s plan of salvation before us. Jesus speaks words of praise for John the Baptist. St. Paul calls us with the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord. So the third part of the sermon of the prophet Zephaniah was chosen because it speaks of the great victory of God’s plan that awaits us, saying, “Sing aloud,” “shout,” “rejoice and exult with all your heart.” No wonder the third blue Advent candle turned rose! We need to hear these bold words especially today, for it seems every time we turn around or turn on the radio or TV these days it looks like everything is falling apart and we’re losing. God’s word says, “No. Do not despair. Fear not. Let not your hands grow weak for the Lord your God is in your midst.” Continue reading “A Bold Witness”
Text: Malachi 3:1-7b
Date: Advent II +12/6/15
Malachi. The name means “messenger.” In the Old Testament canon he brings the last message God’s people will hear for the next 400 years! And what was that message? It was predicting the coming of another messenger which happened “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.” Anyone else? St. Luke runs the credits at the beginning of his record. Malachi’s prediction was coming true as a real messenger appeared in a real place at a real time says St. Luke. “The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan” preaching. Continue reading “Offerings in Righteousness”
Text: Jeremiah 33:14-16 / Luke 19:28-40
Date: Advent I + 11/29/15
Welcome to a new church year wherein we begin again to proclaim the entire story of the Truth, the truth of the one, true God, the truth of our creation by the Creator, the truth of our condemnation because of sin and unbelief, the truth of our redemption by the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Today we begin again to proclaim God’s truth. And just in time, too! For the days are dark. Continue reading “The Lord is Our Righteousness”
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Text: Mark 13:24-37
Date: Last Sunday + Proper 29B + 11/22/15
It was after He entered Jerusalem for the final time, Jesus was sitting with His disciples on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, the bright massive stones gleaming in the sunlight. Then He said, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mk 13:2). Jesus predicted the coming destruction of the temple. Such a shocking prediction had to seem to the disciples almost unbelievable. But how many things, issues, happenings in our time once beyond belief to us have come and are coming to pass? It is here, just days before that final Passover, before our Lord’s death by crucifixion that Jesus not only foretold the destruction of the temple but also spoke of the Last Day and the coming Judgment and Deliverance of all the saints. Continue reading “My Lord, What a Morning!”
