Text: John 6:51-69
Date: Pentecost XIII Proper 15 + 8/19/18
John 3:16. God so loved the world.
In God there are two kinds of love. The first is His ineffable delight in His whole creation when upon its completion He declared it very good. God created everything reflecting His own perfection. Continue reading “God So Loved the World”
Text: John 6:35-51
Date: Pentecost XII Proper 14B + 8/12/18
We come to the second third of Jesus’ famous Bread of Life discourse. In the first third we saw God as giver of everything we need for life. As His highest gift He gave His Word, His Torah through His servant Moses. So also was His Word given through Jesus. As He gave quail and manna to His people of old in the exodus through Moses so now He gave bread and fish to the more than 5,000 who were following Jesus through a desolate place. The important difference between Moses and Jesus however is that Jesus is the Word of God and Jesus is the Bread of God, and not in just a metaphorical sense but in reality, in the flesh, with both feet firmly planted on the ground, the Incarnate Word. After years of wondering I am glad to say that I have finally sided with the early church fathers, Luther and those to this day who “in, with and under” these words identify eucharistic meaning to them. When Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,” He spoke not only of faith in Him and His words but also of a real eating with the mouth, as real as the loaves and fish they had just feasted on, as real as the lamb eaten at the annual Passover Seder, as real as the sacrifice in His flesh on the cross for the life of the world. Continue reading “Real Eating”
Text: John 6:22-35
Date: Pentecost XI Proper 13B + 8/5/18
Do you say Luther’s Prayer Before Meals? It’s in the Small Catechism. You can see it now on page 327 in Lutheran Service Book. It begins by quoting Psalm 145. “The eyes of all look to You, [O Lord,] and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing;” then the little prayer, “Lord God, heavenly Father, bless us and these Your gifts which we receive from Your bountiful goodness, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.” At first it looks like this prayer is only talking about food for the body. But notice the psalm says, “You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” Our desires include much more than for food but also things like those listed in the meaning of the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” “a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” In a similar way the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel at first seems to only be talking about food for the body. But as we shall see Jesus uses the feeding of the 5,000 and the metaphor of food in a much deeper way. Continue reading “God the Giver”
Text: Mark 6:45-56
Date: Pentecost X Proper 12B + 8/29/18
Jesus is the one true God who comes to rescue His people from sin and death, the same God who appeared to His people of old of whom the scripture says, “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8), and “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen” (Ps 77:19). This is the significance of Jesus walking on the sea, that we may know, believe and confess that Jesus is God come to rescue us. Continue reading “He Will Rescue Us”
Text: Mark 6:30-44
Date: Pentecost IX Proper 11b St. Mary Magdalene + 7/22/18
Jesus said to the apostles, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” He might as well have said it to the entire crowd because they went around the lake and got there ahead of them. In fact He did say that as when He saw the great crowd He didn’t utter exasperation or complaint but rather “He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” He had led them away by themselves to a desolate place to rest a while. That’s what He does this morning and every time He invites us to gather with and around Him in Word and Sacrament and prayer. But as the apostles, the crowd and we look around at this otherwise desolate place we see or are to see something more. After a busy and sometimes contentious beginning Jesus gives us a rest, that is, He gives us a glimpse, a vision of our destination, namely, paradise and heaven where we are to see and to know that the eternal life awaiting us in the day of resurrection is both the restoration of life the way God originally intended it to be, but more, even better! Continue reading “Meal of Compassion”
Text: Mark 6:14-29
Date: Pentecost VIII (Proper 10b) + 7/15/18
So far in Mark’s Gospel we have been told of the initial faith in Jesus on the part of some and the increasing rejection of Jesus by many, first by the officials of the temple, then by the crowds—they laughed at Him in derision when confronted by His power to raise a dead child—then by even His hometown former friends and relatives. This rejection will grow to be the main trajectory of His earthly ministry leading to His redemptive goal of being rejected to death on a cross. We even hear that His closest followers will experience the same thing. Continue reading “Zombie Apocalypse”
Text: Mark 6:1-13
Date: Pentecost VII (Proper 9b) + 7/8/18
Anyone who is even the least bit aware of the news of the day has noticed the increasing anger, incivility, and even hatred and physical violence displayed of late in political speech of every kind. Some may even be shocked if not at least disturbed or offended at the raw, offensive and uncivil words being thrown at people like bombs meant to destroy reputations and basic dignity. Continue reading “Are You Listening or Not?”
Text: Mark 5:21-43
Date: Pentecost VI + Proper 8B 7/1/18
This account of a little girl who died and a woman with a hemorrhage forms a key element in Mark’s Gospel for faith, emphasizing Jesus’ power over death and how that power is also at work in your life right now. Various levels of faith are described in this text. First there is a ruler of the synagogue named Jairus who fell at Jesus’ feet saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” Jairus came to Jesus with faith. Continue reading “Compassion for Grief”
Text: Luke 1:57-80
Date: Nativity of St. John the Baptist + 6/24/18
Many if not most saints’ days on the liturgical calendar are scheduled on the supposed date of their martyrdom, death, or “heavenly birthday.” John the Baptist’s day is different however especially because of his close relationship with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It happens that John’s conception and birth was six months before that of Jesus. So we commemorate him six months before the celebration of Christmas, June 24 before December 24. Continue reading “What’s In a Name?”
Text: Mark 4:26-34
Date: Pentecost IV (Proper 06b) + 6/17/18
At first the Word before us today seems to be rather simple. It is about how it is God who breaks into our world and our lives through His Word and plants saving faith in the hearts of those who hear it. It is about how the reign and rule of God’s kingdom is strong enough to save every sinner ultimately delivering us to heaven and eternal life. Continue reading “The Planting of the Lord”
