A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to an audio version of this sermon.   "The Morning of the Resurrection" by Edward Burnes-Jones The text for today, The Resurrection of Our Lord, is our Gospel, Luke 24:1-12, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is risen!   He is risen indeed!   Alleluia! There’s something that I noticed about our text this year that I hadn’t thought about before.   That happens to pastors once in a while.   I’m sure it happens to you, too.   Something new jumps out of God’s Word at you that you’ve never seen before.   Well, for me, on this text, it was one question: Where are the men?   I mean the disciples… the Twelve… the ones who followed Jesus and were taught by Him for those three years?   Why are they hiding in the locked room?   I know, hindsight is 20/20, but should all of this really have caught them by surprise? St. Luke tells us of a lea...

Click here to listen to this sermon. "Crucifixion" by Michelangelo The text for today is Luke 23:44-46: It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed.   And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.   Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!”   And having said this He breathed His last. This is the Word of the Lord. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It may not be the posture for prayer that first comes to mind.   The Son of Man cannot prostrate Himself with His face to the ground in the custom of the ancient Hebrews or modern day Muslims.   He cannot kneel at the altar railing or by the side of His bed like you or I might.     He can bow His head and close His eyes, but He probably can’t see much already with the blood weeping from the pricks of His thorny crown. ...

Click here for an audio version of this sermon.   The text for today is our Old Testament lesson, Deuteronomy 32:36-39, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses is speaking to the Israelites.   They are about to enter the Promised Land, while it is time for him to climb Mount Nebo and die.   These are his last words to the people that he has led as a called servant of the Lord for these many years.   It has been a long, hard journey.   No sooner were the Israelites safe from Egypt than they built a golden calf and elected to call it their god.   The Lord mercifully spared them that day, but other apostasy would follow.   For their disobedience, they were rewarded with forty extra years in the desert.   Now they are finally to enter the Promised Land, and Moses preaches the Word of the Lord one last time and sings his final song.   He prophesies, in part, a terrible fut...

Click here for an audio version of this sermon. The text for this message is Isaiah 53:4-6:   “S urely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.   But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.   All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”   Here ends the text. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, See Him dying on the tree! ‘Tis the Christ by man rejected; Yes, my soul, ‘tis He! ‘tis He! ‘Tis the long-expected Prophet, David’s Son, yet David’s Lord; Proofs I see sufficient of it: Tis the true and faithful Word ( LSB 451:1). "Crucifixion" by Lucas Cranach the Younger Do you see Him up there?   Doesn’t loo...

Click here for an audio version of this sermon.   The text for this message our Luke 20:9-20. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. "The Tenants in the Vineyard" by Jan Luyken Whenever I hear this parable (like many other parables), I end up shaking my head.   Nobody acts the way you would reasonably expect.   Their actions seem foolish, at times, even absurd.   But that is actually the key to understanding any parable: Look for the point of departure from how things are in ordinary, everyday life.   And there are plenty of detours in this one.   We’ll look at them and I think you’ll see what I mean.   But first, let’s look at the context. With the parables, you always have to pay attention to whom Jesus is speaking.   Is it His disciples?   The crowds?   The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law?   In this case, it is the people who are gathered in the temple to hear Jesus teach, no...