A Famine Not of Bread

The text for today is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:   “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”   Here ends the text. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Admit it!   Many of you (especially those of you from the baby boom generation), can’t hear this passage of Scripture without hearin...

The text for today is our Gospel lesson, John 16:16-22, which has already been read. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Before I begin, I must issue the following warning: This sermon contains an illustration featuring the exploits of one of my adorable grandchildren. A couple of years ago we were in the van headed to Gillette , Wyoming for a wedding.   My grandson Abbott started fussing.   So I just said: “Ten more minutes and then we’ll stop.”   Much to my surprise, he quieted down.   And in ten minutes, I kept my promise.   After a quick diaper change and a bottle of formula he was good to go for another 200 miles.   Then he started fussing again.   Since it worked the first time, I decided to try the same line again: “Ten more minutes.”   It seemed to work so well that I used it over and over again. Now, as biased as I may be about my grandchildren’s advanced abi...

This is the message I shared as part of the opening devotion at today's quarterly meeting of the South Dakota Lutherans For Life board of directors. “A Lutheran pastor, a Jewish rabbi, a Baptist minister, and a Roman Catholic priest walk into a hearing…”   It sounds like the setup for a bad joke, doesn’t it?   But it was anything but a joke.   LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison joined the Most Reverent William E. Lori of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Dr. C. Ben Mitchell of Union University, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Yeshiva University, and Dr. Craig Mitchell of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in speaking in defense of religion and conscience before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, D.C on Thursday, February 16, 2012. Expressing concern over the January 20 th U.S. Health and Human Services ruling regarding health-insurance plans and the recently required coverage of contraceptives, ...

The text for today is Luke 24:44-47:   Then [Jesus] said to them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”   Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem .”   This is the Word of the Lord. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Dr. Mortimer Adler taught a class at the University of Chicago on “The Great Books of the Western World.”   On one occasion Dr. Adler turned to one of his brightest students and asked her to summarize one the books for the class.   She had just gotten a high A on her examination for that very book, but she ...