Sermons (Page 106)
Sick Call
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. The sermon for today, the Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, is based upon the Gospel lesson just read, from the account of St. Matthew. Have you ever had the experience of reading or hearing a Bible text, and felt really, really connected to one of the…
The Good of Hatred
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the texts for this morning come from all three but primarily the Gospel reading. She was twenty-three and he was twenty-two, and they had joined the military together. And they were stationed up here at Fort Hood, and they worked a deal so…
Childlike not Childish
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Fellow redeemed in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. As you and I grow older as adults, it is interesting to watch our parents grow older if they are still around. And if they are not, you remember very well the attributes that they exhibited…
Living by Dying
Matthew’s Gospel as a whole is a fascinating and detailed description of the Christian life – every burdensome aspect of it. In today’s lesson, after laying it all out there, Jesus essentially asks His disciples, “Are you in, or are you out?” “This is the defining moment,” He claims. “You now know everything that bearing my name entails, and now you must make a decision.”…
Everything Good
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:45-46) You…
Persistent Faith
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Children, it seems, know the value of persistence. As youngsters, often our continued pleading with a mother or father would bring us the response we wanted. That’s not to say that everything we ever asked for was given to us, because sometimes our choices might have been…
Fear or Faith?
In the holy name of Jesus (+). Amen. It’s a fearful story. Not really a ghost story, but the disciples thought it was a ghost. When Jesus came walking on the water toward their boat, they were afraid. They cried out in fear. Jesus calmed the fears. “Don’t be afraid. It’s just me!” Peter – for whatever reason, we can only guess, but it is Peter, after all – decides he…
True Satisfaction
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “I can’t get no…satisfaction.” So sings Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. For an Englishman, he uses awfully poor English, but such is the license of poetry and song lyrics, it seems. I don’t think anyone is going to confuse Jagger’s prose with William Shakespeare’s. In our Gospel lesson today,…
Election anxiety or comfort?
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + + Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. These days it seems like we can hardly pick up a newspaper or newsmagazine, or…
Simul Good Wheat et Bad Weeds
What is it that makes Jesus’ parables so appealing to us? For one thing, of course, they’re the Word of God—spoken directly to human beings by the incarnate God—and recorded for us and all His Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. I think another thing that we like about them is that they’re rather accessible to us. Even without the explanations that Jesus often…
